"Public Art" Project Comes to Life in Seventh Grade Science Lab

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Students at work transforming a cement column in Helen
Schwiers' science lab with themes from the life sciences
course. At right, Middle School art teacher Alice Munn
supervises the painting.

To Helen Schwiers, the large cement column was not an eyesore. It was an opportunity.

Mrs. Schwiers wanted to decorate the structural column with life science themes from her curriculum. She approached art teacher Alice Munn with her idea for the project. Together, the two Middle School teachers decided to enlist volunteer seventh grade students in a "Public Art in Science" Monday Activity class during study hall periods.

Proud of their handiwork, "Public Art in Science" volunteers
pose in front of their completed project.

Mrs. Schwiers wanted to see the column illustrated with body systems, lab equipment, atoms, and DNA. First, the column had to be painted and sealed (with materials donated by Roger Dalrymple). Under Mrs. Munn's guidance, students began by finding magazine pictures of the human body in action. These were projected onto large sheets of butcher paper and their outlines traced and cut out.

The next step was to project the body systems onto the outlines. There's a diver showing the musculature of the human body, a baseball batter with his nervous system aglow, and other brightly colored figures displaying their digestive tracts, skeletal structure, and nervous systems.

A total of 15 students participated in the project, adding a microscope, nerve cells, and strands of DNA winding around the column. Congratulations to these artists, who not only brightened the life sciences lab, but also contributed a visual teaching aid to the classroom: Ian Conits, Sarah Daniels, Thomas Freeman, Morgan Gregg, Harrison Horowitz, Chelsea Lawdahl, Virginia McCall, Nathan Pearman, Zack Princell, William Ray, Emily Snow, Chris Sladek, Leah Sullivan, Lauren Thiesen, and Maddy Varin.

Rumor has it that public art projects will be spreading to other areas of the Middle School soon!