Heidi A. Everett
Art will be infused throughout the unit. The unit will begin with an art activity that involves the students creating a piece of art work that they will later return to at the end of the unit. This piece of art work entails a "before and after" theme as the students reflect on the beginning of the unit and the knowledge they have acquired throughout the unit as to what their anatomy entails. These images will be collected and then referenced at the end of the unit. Students will observe various pieces of art work created at different points in history depicting the human form. The students will compare and contrast the depictions of the human form and brain storm as to why the images start as simplistic and become more complex with time.
The art activities focus on using a single sense or a combination of senses. Once the students have completed an activity, the students will analyze how their senses provided the necessary information to complete the art activity in a daily journal. Each art activity used will allow the students to investigate how the central nervous system pairs with the structure and function associated with each of the five senses. The unit briefly touches upon how the sensory information is transported through the spinal cord and then processed in the brain. Due to the complexity of the mechanisms involved, the material covered will be brief and basic.
In addition, the art activities will focus on creating visual representations of the central nervous system to help provide the students with a better understanding of the anatomy. At the end of the unit, each of these artistic creations will be combined to provide the student with a giant visual concept map of how the central nervous system operates based on the information provided by the five senses. The objective is for the students to be able to distinguish how various parts of their anatomy assist in allowing for their five senses to exist. The students will distinguish the pathways being used that allow their senses and the brain to work together to facilitate their cognition of the world around them.
I know that through my own experiences as a student and now being a teacher that a variety of strategies should be used when planning a unit. I repeatedly attempt to connect new material I am teaching with the experiences students most likely have encountered in their world beyond the classroom. The technological age that we live in requires that students are provided with a multi-sensory environment that will engage them through various modes of instruction (Roberts, 2002). This type of environment can be created through the presence of computers and LCD projectors, items typically available in schools today. The unit also employs the use of basic art supplies in order to provide students with a more organic approach to their learning through the creation of different pieces of art depicting the anatomy.
Brain Based Learning
This unit is built around the "principles of brain based learning" that Jay W. Roberts presented in his article on
Beyond Learning by Doing: The Brain Compatible Approach
in the Journal of Experiential Education (Roberts, 2002). Roberts' article focuses on the brain's programmed nature to look for relationships within new material to catalogue the information in a way that can be easily accessed (Roberts, 2002). Concept maps are key tools in allowing students to see the big picture of how foundational elements are the basis on which the new material is being built.
Romance Languages and Science
The student population I instruct in the New Haven district is very diverse. Many of my students speak a second language and some of these languages are romance languages. Students speak a romance language or those enrolled in a Latin class, can be instructed to look for the Latin cognates that are the roots of the majority of the vocabulary used in science. This can help students who are weak in their vocabulary acquisition to recognize the meaning that is woven in the root of new vocabulary words. The language of science is filled with Latin cognates and by understanding this relationship, the vocabulary can be presented in a less threatening manner, allowing the students a bit of familiarity with the new vocabulary. Students who do not have a romance language as a second language can still draw on their knowledge from a foreign language class. In particular, Latin provides a strong foundation.
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences provides the basis for the unit to be grounded in an environment focused on using the senses. There are a variety of intelligences infused in the activities are influential in determining the way in which students can excel in showcasing their talents (Campbell, 2004). Verbal-linguistic intelligence entails one's ability to understand and manipulate words in order to communicate in a variety of contexts such as reading, writing, and speaking (Campbell, 2004). Logical-mathematical intelligence revolves around the blending of science, logic, and mathematics (Campbell, 2004). This type of intelligence thrives off classrooms that include working with numbers, sequencing, the scientific method, Venn diagrams, questioning strategies, and analogies (Campbell, 2004). Tactile-kinesthetic intelligence revolves around the need for the student to manipulate what they are learning through touching objects as well as through the use of their entire body in activities. This type of intelligence thrives off activities that provide the student with the chance to learn the material by actually performing a task (Campbell, 2004). Visual-spatial intelligence entails a variety of areas such as the development of mental images, visually recognizing and discriminating between various objects and life forms, spatial reasoning, manipulating images, and projection (Campbell, 2004). This intelligence deals with much more then the creation of works of art that are original in their composition. This type of intelligence thrives off analyzing visual media such as graphs and diagrams, creating three-dimensional objects, and being able to depict negative space. The spatial orientation aspect of this intelligence includes not only artists but pilots and architects in their ability to successfully navigate themselves and objects through space (Campbell, 2004). The lessons in this unit may draw upon more than one intelligence as no individual is strictly one type of intelligence.
