Energy Education

The Energy Education Through Art (Fall 2002) was an interdisciplinary project supported by a grant awarded to Nuala Creed, artist-in-residence, by the California Arts Council and the State and Consumer Service Agency. Children worked with the artist-in-residence, environmental educator, and local poet Gail Newman. At the end of the semester, the third grade class completed and installed a handmade ceramic tile mural that captured the ideas of each child.

Installed on the school’s north wall, the children’s mural consists of three panels – water, wind, and sun. Each section focuses on energy, the environment, and the conservation of both. First, the class created individual drawings after attending a presentation by the environmental educator. These presentations focused on electricity, alternative energy sources, environmental impacts, fossil fuels, air pollution, acid rain, mining impacts, and the greenhouse effect. Poet Gail Newman worked with the children and the third grade teacher to incorporate the children’s written poetry in each panel.

The artistic creation was a multilevel process that involved the children at all stages. Their drawings were combined, made into a cartoon, projected to scale (42” by 24”), traced onto velum then transferred onto clay. As the children worked with clay, new ideas emerged. Birds, flowers, and animals surfaced. The class expressed concern about who will save the world and make the air better. They speculated about the automobiles of the future; then created their own solar-powered bus located in the solar panel within their amazing mural.