Building nests, examining oak leaves and fox dens, constructing realistic models of cicadas and dragonflies – students at Springhill Lake Elementary are making fun art projects with the help of innovative online programming, provided by Greenbelt Recreation in partnership with local environmental groups Greenbelt Biota, CHEARS (Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society) and Ikumi Kayama, an award-winning scientific illustrator. With support from the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council and the Mary Geiger Scholarship fund, Greenbelt Recreation has provided online instruction this year and last after a decade of in-person after-school classes. Six different projects are currently offered in four different sessions, reaching about 80 students who have signed up to take part. Elizabeth Gardner produced the instructional videos and, along with Adam Campanile, runs weekly Zoom sessions where the students share their work and do additional drawing projects.
“The kids make their own projects after watching an instructional video,” stated Anne Gardner, arts education specialist for Greenbelt Recreation. Gardner went on to say, “We deliver a bag of arts supplies with everything they need to do the projects, such as model magic, construction paper, markers and crayons. The videos are available for anyone at the school to watch and they have had over 400 views so far. A parent came onto the last Zoom to say how great it was and how much their kids enjoyed it.” According to her, one of the students said, “I’m really sad because we won’t have art class over winter break!” She added, “They don’t all show up for the Zoom sessions, but at least they have the art supplies and are making art. At the end of the year, we’ll do a virtual art gallery showing all the art projects in a slide show, so they can see what everyone has made.”
Members of Greenbelt Biota contributed video footage for three of the six projects offered this year. Greenbelt Biota, the Natural History Society of Greenbelt, organizes monthly walks and shares observations on their Facebook page. They catalog the flora and fauna of Greenbelt’s urban green spaces and teach about their importance for the conservation of biodiversity.
Damien Ossi and his son Jude made a video in the North Woods, showing the leaves of various oak trees that thrive in Greenbelt, including white oak, red oak, scarlet oak, willow oak and swamp white oak. After watching the video about oak trees in Greenbelt, students can use construction paper and supplies provided in their materials kit to build an acorn that unfolds to reveal the sprouting oak tree.
Catherine Plaisant produced a video featuring common local animal habitats, including birds’ nests, squirrels’ nests and a fox’s den. The corresponding art project was to weave a bird’s nest out of pipe cleaners, raffia and natural components like grass and twigs, complete with model-magic eggs.
Jamie Jorgensen and Maria Hult made an informative video about the periodical cicadas of Brood X, that emerged in May of 2021. Students then made cicada puppets, with an emerging nymph coming out of a toilet paper tube and an adult with red pompoms for eyes.
Kayama works with science experts to create accurate illustrations for scientific and medical purposes. Kayama has won numerous awards for her illustrations and lectures and teaches workshops on scientific illustration. For this series, she leads students to go outside and collect different types of leaves and then shows the students how to measure and draw the leaves accurately. She recommends drawing lightly so that an eraser can be easily used to fix problems, or putting a whole new sheet of paper over a mistake and redrawing to fix it. Kayama suggests another way to improve a drawing: “Turning it upside down really helps me see the shapes. With practice, and asking for help, you get better really fast.”
Carolyn Lambright-Davis, coordinator of the CHEARS Three Sisters Demonstration Garden at Franklin Park, talked about the Springhill Lake Earth Squad, a group of elementary school students who design, implement and maintain the garden. The associated art projects were to make paper plate masks of animals, like rabbits or owls, that might be seen at the garden as well as dragonflies made out of model magic, wire and colored film for the wings. CHEARS leads education and environmental stewardship projects to promote the health of all life in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.