By Sam Green, Arts Integration Schools Manager
You don’t often find folks interested in staying late at work on a Friday, but that’s what happened last month at Western High School as science and arts teachers prepared for a collaborative project to engage students in an arts integrated photography project.
Western is one of AED’s Arts Integration School Partners this year, meaning they receive targeted funding and support to achieve schools-based arts integration goals. This year, one of their goals, identified through their arts integration coach’s collaboration with staff and administration, is to bring meaningful and rigorous arts integration experiences tailored to the unique needs of high school students to Western. Creating impactful arts integration experiences at the high school level can face several challenges, including larger student populations, more complex schedules, and increased testing as students prepare for graduation. Western’s arts integration coach, art teacher Casey Hegarty, has been an incredible advocate for her students and has thoughtfully been leading the charge around this goal.
I was delighted to be able to join Western’s educators for Friday afternoon’s professional development. Artist and educator Josh Sinn facilitated a 2 hour workshop leading teachers through how to construct pinhole cameras and develop their prints with students. A high school teacher himself, Josh was able to share not only an overview of technique, but also a close look at how to manage a project of this scope with high school students. Western’s teachers then got the chance to capture their own image using a pinhole camera.
After a brief chilly field trip to the parking lot to get an exposure, we all huddled into Western’s dark room, which had previously sat unused since the late 90s to watch the development process. It’s always great how the analog development process can challenge you to slow down and practice patience–something it was great to see this diverse group of teachers enjoy themselves and reflect on how valuable of a gift it is to give students.
We talked about how much like in science, photography includes a lot of testing and experimenting to get all the variables just right. Excitingly, our print came out pretty good for a first try.
With the knowledge gained from this session, teachers will now be working to plan their own pinhole units with students, using photography to help students see and deepen their understanding of the physics of how light travels.
We are so grateful for the work of these educators and beyond in pushing to create impactful and engaging learning experiences for students!