STEAMing up Garbage

Graphing Garbage
A STEAM workshop: Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS, Math
Youth in Arts staff Suzanne Joyal and Miko Lee in collaboration with the Marin County Office of Education  led a cohort of classroom teachers through a workshop teaching about the environmental pollution and ways to transform garbage into art while also teaching about graphing.
Teachers watched this video about the Pacific Trash “Island” and learned about the immense amount of plastic that has been impacting the planet. They watched the presentation (available below) about the impact of pollution on animals and saw how professional adult artists and kid artists could make powerful art from trash to tell a story.
Suzanne described the Graphing Garbage arts integration project that she created at Willow Creek Academy. Lesson plan (available below). She showed how graphing can be showed in a various artistic formats. Teachers then went through trash collected by YIA. They sorted the trash by items that had the most dangerous impact on animals. Working in teams they showcased this by featuring three sizes of fish and a jellyfish on an ocean backdrop. After reflecting on this process, teachers discussed potential math and literacy extensions.
Teachers then created individualized animals that they could bring back to their classrooms to replicate the process.
For help with sorting and weighing garbage in all Marin Schools (except Novato), contact Casey Poldino at CPoldino@marincounty.org and check out this website http://zerowastemarin.org/schools/.  For Novato schools, contact Dee Johnson at Novato Sanitary or Recology https://www.recology.com/recology-sonoma-marin/community-education-programs/
To make the recycled art more successful, Suzanne suggested purchasing Extra Tacky Glue and Tempera Cakes from RileyStreet Art Supply.
PaperSeed Foundation currently has a Recycled Art contest. Teachers and students win prizes. Click here for more info.
A Graphing Garbage Integration Lesson and Graphing GarbagePPT was provided for the teachers to share in their classrooms.
 
Thank you to Christina Lunde for making the dinner and helping with logistics and to Eileen Smith for her assistance. Thank you PaperSeed Foundation and the California Arts Council for making this evening possible.