There is a dynamic synergy between the visual arts and the natural sciences. For example, science relies heavily on individuals with visual-art skills to render detailed illustrations, depicting everything from atoms to zebras. Likewise, artists apply analytic, linear, and logical thinking to compose and scale their work of art. These parallel…

This study investigates preschool teachers' beliefs about integrated curriculum and, more specifically, their beliefs about integration of visual arts with other activities. The participants of this study consisted of 255 female preschool teachers who are employed in preschools in Ankara, Turkey. For the study, teachers were asked to complete…

Painting modeling rules are constructed based on objective representing with material substances as the main body and the construction methods and orders are mostly limited to narrative viewing and expression, which, obviously, is not the best method. Logistic thinking in virtue of modeling art could gender a more "painting-like"…

The role of reflection is central to teacher preparation. As individuals integrate new information within their existing schema, they refine their practice. Through reflection pre-service teachers examine, evaluate, and adjust. Yet, the practice of reflection is rarely explicitly taught. Often teacher educators found their students aligning their…

The methods by which environmental issues are aestheticized in late-twentieth-century film is directly and historically related to those established for grand manner painters by Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and taught at the French academy from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. That these fundamentals were part of the training of…

In this article, the author describes an underwater scene composition for elementary-education majors. This project deals with watercolor with crayon or oil-pastel resist (medium); the beauty of nature represented by fish in the underwater scene (theme); texture and pattern (design elements); drawing simple forms (drawing skill); and composition…

Recent theories of the aesthetic appreciation of nature or natural environments have done much to clarify what might be essential to such appreciation. Such accounts are incomplete, however, as they depend on a strict separation between works of art and nature itself. This paper shows how classical Chinese landscape painting offers a way to…

A sky fading from blue to white to red at the horizon, and water darkening from light to midnight blue. Strong diagonals slashing through the image, drawing a viewer's eyes deeper into the picture, and delicate trees poised to convey a sense of beauty. These are the fascinating strengths of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of Japanese artist Ando…

The students in the author's first grade class looked at Picasso's painting, "The Three Musicians," and observed how Picasso made the objects and people appear squared or "cubed." This style of art is called Cubism. In this article, the author describes a painting project that required her students to paint a Cubist snowman. This project helped…

While planning a print-making unit for her ninth-grade class, the author was looking for a way to extend a project beyond the usual boundaries to incorporate each student's personality. She also wanted to add a three-dimensional element. Her original project involved creating a linoleum block print of each student's face. In this article, the…

There is something disappointing about life. It is messy and out of control. It seems the more one tries to put life in order, the more ordering there is to do. The more one seeks explanations, the more confusing things become. Life's an impossible task. Maybe one should just give up. Or, then again, one might as well keep trying. It's this…

A rich and stimulating opportunity awaits teachers who plan to connect or bring together an art project with another subject area of the curriculum, thus addressing the sixth listing in the National Visual Arts Standards. While art is important in its own right, the reality is there is often too much content in the curriculum nowadays and not…

In this article, we trace learning across the digital video production process through case studies with four youth media arts organizations (YMAOs) across the United States. We hypothesize that what these organizations share is a series of key moments throughout the production process in which youth must articulate the relationship between the…

Integrating the visual and performing arts is one clear and concrete strategy to engage students in learning social studies content and concepts while making them interactive and relevant to their daily lives. In this article, the authors offer a rationale for teaching integrated arts with social studies, provide a framework for planning, and…

Standing in awe in Xian, China, at the Terra Cotta warrior archaeological site, the author thought of sharing this experience and excitement with her sixth-grade students. She decided to let her students carve patterns of the ancient soldiers to understand their place in Chinese history. They would make block prints and print multiple soldiers on…