Students will discuss the sculpture "Python Killing a Gnu" by Antoine-Louis Barye. They will use their imagination to visualize a setting for the python depicted in sculpture. Then they will describe their setting, sculpt a clay snake, and create their setting using mixed media.

This site showcases materials from two American Folklife Centercollections, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (1978) and the All-American Quilt Contest sponsored by Coming Home, a division of Lands' End, and Good Housekeeping. Together, these collections provide a glimpse into America's diverse quilting traditions. Photographs and recorded interviews with quiltmakers are also available.

Students will examine a photograph and participate in a class discussion about their own experiences living in the urban landscape. They will create a collage from magazines that reflect life in the city as they have experienced it. They will then write about their collage of the city.

Students will study the pastel drawing "Waiting" by Edgar Degas and discuss the story Degas may be telling through the body language and clothing of the people in the work of art. They will then create a pastel drawing depicting a time when they had to wait for something and compose a brief narrative based on this memory.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to design safety equipment for a vehicle that can protect a raw egg from breaking during a collision.

In this activity, learners explore electronics and motion by making a Scribbling Machine, a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace its path. It's made from simple materials and is based on the idea of motion created by an offset motor. Try using harvested motors and switches from discarded toys and electronics to make your Scribbling Machine - this not only keeps costs down, but is a playful and inventive way to explore how everyday objects work. To take the activity further, you can also incorporate PicoCrickets to make your Scribbling Machine more intelligent and to explore computers.

Students will learn how images have been used to persuade people in the past and present about a specific message or idea. They will research the 17th-century European Counter-Reformation and discuss how a sculpture of a saint might have been used as a persuasive image in a Catholic convent or monastery. Working in teams, students will then create sculptures commissioned by "patrons" and write press releases to promote their creations.

Students will examine the sculpture of the Greek hero Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) and discuss what it means to be a hero in ancient Greece and today. They will then choose a modern hero and create a sculpture that expresses the hero's identity and attributes.

This is the first lesson in a sequential unit. Students consider the ways that sculptors have represented concepts and ideals as symbolic forms in three dimensions. They compare historical examples to those in contemporary culture, and begin sketching designs for their own symbolic sculpture.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students use criteria developed in class to evaluate which of their own sketches would make the best symbolic sculpture. They choose a final design, techniques and materials, and create sculptures based on their designs.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students participate in a class critique of the symbolic sculptures they created. They critique the work of their peers by responding to questions about the symbolic content and applying criteria for sculpture developed in Lesson 1.

Students will create their own work of art that serves as a social commentary. Students will make a moral or ethical statement in their work and use elements of the Neoclassical style to communicate their message.

This is the first lesson in a sequential unit. Students look at and discuss still-life paintings and develop a definition for the genre. They then further their understanding of this type of painting and practice watercolor techniques by painting their own still lifes from direct observation. Art production focuses on the tools used to create the illusion of three-dimensional space and convey texture in watercolors.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students choose meaningful objects for a still-life arrangement and paint it using watercolors. After reflecting on their choice of objects and composition, students begin to write an artist's statement.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students paint the same still-life arrangement from Lesson 2, but in an opaque medium. They compare similarities and differences of working with the transparent and opaque mediums and refine their artist's statements.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students display the two still-life paintings that they created in previous lessons along with their artist's statements. They write a review of a peer's work and discuss all of the paintings in a group critique.

Students will examine a scene depicting Herakles (known as Hercules to the Romans) and the Hydra on the face of a black-figure "hydria". They will then read Greek myths and choose one to depict in the style of the vase painter, known as the Eagle Painter.

In this activity, learners overlap the three primary colors to see how all other colors are made. This activity also explains how color can be explained by the subtraction of colors of light, related to the principles of absorption and reflection of light.

Students create double-exposed photographs, poetry, and multimedia presentations to celebrate their "Open Court" "City Wildlife" unit.

This series of lessons will provide students with an understanding of the Baroque period and help them identify decorative arts and architecture from that period. After studying Baroque paintings, furniture, architecture, and craft guilds, students will create a mixed-media sculpture inspired by Bernard van Risenburgh's Double Desk. Throughout the unit, students will reflect on their experiences in journals.