Infusing Science with the Arts
Explore STEAM education resources developed at the UCAR Center for Science Education and visit the Art-Science Gallery at the NCAR Mesa Lab visitor center in Boulder, Colorado to see exhibits that connect atmospheric science with visual art.
Art-Science Classroom Activities
- The Art of Clouds (grades 4-12) Students use a cloud identification guide to identify clouds in landscape paintings, then make their own art to identify cloud types.
- Whirling, Swirling Air Pollution (grades 6-9) This storytelling activity builds literacy skills while giving a sense of the many ways in which daily activities contribute to air pollution.
- Drawing Clouds Inside the Lines (grades 3-6) In this classroom activity, students investigate how clouds change over time by making repeat observations of a section of sky and then representing their data graphically.
- The Colors of the Seasons (grades K-4) In this Elementary GLOBE activity, students will understand how colors in nature relate to their local environment and to seasonal changes within that environment. Students will practice observational and recording skills, make comprehensive comparisons, and will form a hypothesis based on the information they have assembled throughout the school year.
Art-Science Learning Resources
- Is Snow White? Maybe, or Maybe Not: This online art gallery shows the colors used to portray snow in a collection of landscape paintings.
- History of Discovery of the Atmosphere: The story of how people explored the atmosphere before they had ways to get there
- The Zika Zine: Cartoons to share how mosquitoes carry disease
- Follow Me! A comic book about how scientists track animals from space
Presentations
- The Art of Clouds: A collection of slides featuring Western landscape paintings with identifiable clouds.
- Art and Science, An Intersection: NCAR Ignite presentation by Lisa Gardiner to tell the story of how air pollution made its way into landscape art during the Industrial Revolution