Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School

• Subject Area: Art

Brief Description

    Students will discuss the relationship between environments, natural resources and housing. They will then establish a connection with students in a classroom or school there and paint pictures of what they think homes might look like based on basic data from an encyclopedia about environments present in the area of the exchange school.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Explore the relationship between environments and housing.
• Use their imaginations to paint homes based on their experiences with housing and information about the environment in the exchange area.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as a World Wide Web browser. In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
2. Special software requirements: None.
3. Internet access: A medium-speed or higher connection.
4. Classroom Resources: Watercolors, paper, small and medium paint brushes.

Activity Description

    

• Introduce the lesson by outlining to students the plans for the next few class sessions. Let students know that they will be establishing a connection with students in a classroom or school in a foreign country, that they will use their imaginations to make paintings of what they imagine homes in the exchange site to be, that they will use a variety of resources to find information about and images of the exchange country, that they will draw their own homes or examples of housing in their area and that they will exchange their drawings with students in the foreign country.

• Establish a connection with another classroom or school in a foreign country using one of the Internet exchange programs available (see Internet Resources below). Ask students in the foreign country to participate in an "artwork exchange" of homes in their community.

• Use an encyclopedia to gather data on the foreign exchange area such as average annual rainfall and the kind of environment (rainforest, desert, savannah, mountain, grasslands). Discuss the relationships between the environment and natural resources for building homes. The following is a list of possible discussion questions:
  • What are the different purposes for housing? (Protection from elements, membership in a community, statements of individual style and personality)
  • How does the environment determine the construction of homes?
  • What effect does population density have on housing?
  • How is housing affected when natural building materials have been depleted and need to be imported?

• Using the limited data on the exchange area, have students create paintings of what they imagine housing would look like in the foreign school community.

• When paintings are finished, have students share their artwork with the class and talk about the concepts they intended to depict.

Internet Resources

• GlobalSchoolNet Foundation
  [http://www.gsn.org]
  GlobalSchoolNet Foundation provides services and "training wheels" for educators on the Internet

• Global Schoolhouse Project
  [http://www.gsh.org]
  Utilizing the Internet and the most advanced technology of the day, the Global Schoolhouse provides its participants with opportunities for life-long learning. The Global Schoolhouse is a virtual meeting place where people of all ages and backgrounds can collaborate, interact, develop, publish, and discover resources.

• Internet Projects Registry
  [http://www.gsn.org/gsn/proj/index.html]
  A central place to find partners and projects on the Internet, organized by the month they begin.

• CU-SeeMe Schools Directory
  [http://www.gsn.org/gsn/cu/index.html]
  A listing of K12 schools around the world who have the ability to participate in CU-SeeMe videoconferencing and an archive of events schools can participate in.

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