The students in Ms. Oliver’s class can tell you where the intersection of art and math lies; it’s with Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian. The students have been using his techniques based on geometry to understand the value of lines, shapes and angles.Ms. Oliver has been taking her Carson Elementary students on a journey of discovery as they uncover the power of the abstract artists masterpieces. In addition to studying the art, students study the artist through a text set of various media. They read an article, watch a video, visit virtual galleries and listen to the story, Coppernickel Goes Mondrian by Wouter Van Reek.
During their artist study, students are introduced to the program Geogebra, a dynamic geometry software, to investigate points, lines, line segments, rays, perpendicular and parallel lines. Then they put all those tools to work to make their own Mondrian inspired designs.
Ms. Oliver states, “When students have a context in which to learn something, they learn it without effort or objection.”
Ms. Oliver is a 4/5 teacher at Carson Elementary STEAM Magnet school.
