Inquiry Based Project
DQ TEMPLATE
Team member
Name: Kimberly Wherry
Topic: How the arts represent and enhance different cultures around the world
Part 1: Driving question:
What are your three initial driving questions?
1 How do different cultures around the world utilize art forms for expressing their specific culture?
2 How do the arts enhance a culture's traditions and customs?
3 What are some ways that art creates symbolism within a culture?
What is your one, final driving question?
How do the arts enhance a culture’s customs and traditions?
Background information of this driving question:
This will be for grade level 8 and the standard is under Responding to art: history and culture, Standard 1- Understand art in relation to history and past and contemporary culture. Before researching this driving question, students should have a broad concept of some certain art forms that are specific to the customs of specific cultures around the world.
Why do you think this is a good driving question?
This is a good driving question because since it is open ended, there is essentially no “wrong answer” to the question, which means that it would warrant in depth study. This is a relevant issue for the students in any classroom, because it is important to be knowledgeable about other cultures and their customs and traditions. There is more than one plausible solution for the question, and the question is more about the topic of “how” than “why”. This will provide opportunities for students to analyze, present, explore, and share their findings in the evidence and examples of how cultures represent their customs through art forms.
Part2: Grabber
What is your grabber?
Students will read these two articles, one about the Chinese New Year and traditions, https://newsela.com/articles/lib-history-chinese-new-year-traditions/id/25185/
and one about Egyptian mummies
https://newsela.com/articles/lib-ushistory-egypt-mummy/id/26629/
Why do you think this grabber is beneficial and how it align with your driving question?
These articles will catch students attention and engage them because they will learn about certain ways that different cultures utilize the arts in implementing their traditions and values. Students will then think about something that is a defining part of their culture, and they will make an artwork, which can be either 3D or 2D that is representative of either their personal traditions and values within their own culture, or they can pick a culture that they find interesting and recreate a traditional work of art that is specific to that culture. This activity will help students become aware of other cultures that they are not familiar with, and learn what traditions and values are important to their peers.
Culminating activities: List all your activities here:
1) Activity 1
What is your first activity?
First off, I will share the two articles, one about the Chinese New Year, and the other about Egyptian mummies to the class. I will ask them to think about what traditions and values are relevant to their own culture, as a whole group. Then I will ask them the DQ- “How do different cultures around the world utilize artforms to express their traditions and values?”
I will then explain to students that I want them to think about either their own culture, or pick a culture that is interesting to them and create a 3D or 2D representation of something that is relevant with the culture that they picked to research. I am then going to show this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHLL_GxG68
This video shows some specific aspects about different cultures around the world, so it is a guide to help them choose what they want to investigate.
I will then divide the students into groups of 3-4 and allow them to brainstorm some cultures and what artforms that they use in their traditions- For example, sugar skulls from Mexico for Day of the Dead, or dragons for Chinese New Year.
After students have decided what culture they would like to investigate, I will allow them to do some research about the specific art form their culture uses that they would like to recreate. I will have many different materials available for students to create their cultural piece, including many 2D and 3D materials. After proposing this project, the kids will have a week and a half to complete this project.
After the kids have completed their project, I will tell them to write a paragraph about their cultural piece, and describe what the traditional artform is, and why and how it is representational of the culture they decided to research. I also want them to include a picture or 2 of an example of an authentic piece that the culture uses that they decided to base their personal piece off of.
Students will then present their piece to the class, and tell the class some history and background about how the culture uses the certain artwork and why they use it.
Why do you think this is a good activity for PBL?
How is the activity authentic?
This activity is authentic because it allows the students to learn some history about various cultures around the world, and how they use art forms to express their traditions.
Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present and defend problem solution?
This activity lets students present useful information about a culture that they are personally interested in, and creating a work of art in their own way that is closely related to the culture they chose. They will research the culture and provide sources for their research.
Does the activity require student collaboration?
This activity allows student collaboration because students will brainstorm in small groups some cultures around the world and how they use art in their traditions.
How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?
Exploring Cultures through Artforms Rubric
Examples of Cultures using Art to express traditions
