Four STEAM Activities to Integrate Visual Art, Science, and Engineering
3 Min Read • STEAM
If you’re anything like me, your Pinterest boards, LiveBinders, and bookmark tabs are full of exciting teaching ideas that you’ve come across in your internet travels. And if you’re like me, you never dig deeply into most of these ideas because the wealth of information is so great and time is so limited. Today, I’m sharing four fantastic STEAM Activities, exciting inquiry-based ideas for integrating visual art and engineering that I’ve come across in hopes that it brings these lessons one step closer to your classroom!
Pendulum Painting
MarthaStewart.com
Pendulum painting is a great way for students to engage in learning about forces of motion and gravity. Hang a paint brush from a fixed object so it can swing freely back and forth, demonstrating the physics of a pendulum. Students can work through several of the practices for science and engineering as they design and build a pendulum and plan and conduct an investigation into how force of motion and gravity will impact the design of their pendulum painting.
NGSS Connections: Disciplinary Core Idea PS2 (Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions), PS3 (Energy)
Sources
- Ted Talk: The Painter and the Pendulum
- Martha Stewart Project
- Pendulum Painting Made Easy (Handmade Kids Art)
Calder Mobiles
Instructables.com
There are a number of STEAM activities for creating mobiles in the style of Alexander Calder out there, and here are a few sources for bringing it to your classroom! These activities engage students with the concepts of force and balance. Students will learn about the function and form of levers as they create mobiles and experiment with finding equilibrium.
NGSS Connections: Disciplinary Core Idea PS2 (Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions)
Sources
Magnetic Painting
Lets-Explore.net
Magnet painting is a beautiful, colorful integration of science and art. You can purchase magnet wands to facilitate this project or use any heavy-duty magnets you might have on hand. Use a variety of magnetic objects in different shapes and sizes, and have students make observations about magnetic force as well as the paint patterns created by each object.
NGSS Connections: Disciplinary Core Idea PS2 (Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions)
Sources
- Magnetic Painting (Kids Play Box)
- Five Minute Craft (Left Brain Craft Brain)
- Magnet Painting (Housing a Forest)
Robot Art
Instructables.com
There are a couple of great kits for creating robot art on the market, including the Brush Bot kit (painting) and the Doodling Robot kit (drawing). These provide a great introduction to model building, basic mechanics, and robotics for young students. For your older or advanced students, challenge them to create their own robot!
NGSS Connections: ETS1 (Engineering Design)
Sources of these STEAM Activities
Need more ideas like these? Try our online Designed to STEAM online course with lifetime access, 10 PD hours and the templates, lessons, and downloadable resources to save you time.
*See my TeachersPayTeachers resources, Next Generation Science Standards At-A-Glance and National Core Arts Standards At-a-Glance, for easy standards alignment and curriculum mapping!
Instructables.com
There are a couple of great kits for creating robot art on the market, including the Brush Bot kit (painting) and the Doodling Robot kit (drawing). These provide a great introduction to model building, basic mechanics, and robotics for young students. For your older or advanced students, challenge them to create their own robot!
NGSS Connections: ETS1 (Engineering Design)
Sources of these STEAM Activities
Need more ideas like these? Try our online Designed to STEAM online course with lifetime access, 10 PD hours and the templates, lessons, and downloadable resources to save you time.
*See my TeachersPayTeachers resources, Next Generation Science Standards At-A-Glance and National Core Arts Standards At-a-Glance, for easy standards alignment and curriculum mapping!
