It’s STEAM-y in the Art Room

Nancy Jackson is the visual arts teacher for Lanham Elementary at NAF Atsugi, Japan. Recently, her second graders completed a fourteen week Robot STEAM Unit (STEM (science, technology, engineering, & mathematics + ART = STEAM). This unit was comprised of looking at various types of robots-their purpose, function, design, from all over the world, and featured community robot art, as well as real-life, domestic, machines and humanoids from Japan, and lastly US military and NASA automatons. Students design a total of three different robot artworks.

Bots were inspired by Portland, Oregon artist Gary Hirsch. His domino robots are art objects used to provide help or positive messages to those who might need it-happiness, joy, love, courage, etc.  Since 2010, he has created more than 37,000 and still going strong.  He now encourages others to “steal” the idea and use this idea to uplift their own community. LHES second graders adapted his idea and made a construction paper version.

For more information about Bots: http://www.botjoy.com/

Camouflage Robots were inspired by the journal robot drawings of Italian illustrator, Vincent Caut and by the Japanese paper cut-out robots by Makito Ozeki. Students create robots that were filled with mostly line patterns, including small circle rivets and bolts using black Sharpie markers.