RISD outreach unleashes creative process for elementary school students

Sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor of the Jewish Community Day School’s design laboratory, Melita Morales, a graduate student at the Rhode Island School of Design, motioned to the group of objects between her and a class of fourth graders.

The RISD Edna Lawrence Nature Lab collection ranged from sea to land, including a starfish, seahorses, seashells, honeycomb, and turtle shell.

Morales instructed the students to pick out one item and then asked what geometric shapes they saw. One by one, they pointed to circles, squares, octagons and lines.

“What do we call shapes without a name?” asked Morales, introducing the concept of organic shapes. “Maybe with a squiggly line on one side?”

RISD undergraduate Ingrid Lange, who is studying industrial design, pushed the thought process a little further: “Why do you think we even talk about geometry in the real world?”

After the brief introduction to shapes, both manmade and in nature, Morales and Lange guided the students to nearby tables, with instructions to build either an architectural shape or an animal, or even housing for a creature.

“You can use whatever you want,” Morales said. “Connect the wood dowels with clay like we did last week, or go with a whole new shape. You can connect things by putting corners together with clay or you can use tape. There are no rules. You can figure out what works best. Use one shape or a whole mixture of shapes.”

Teacher Melissa Kranowitz observed the give and take between the younger and older students, noting that her class had wrapped up studying decimals and was heading into geometry, which fit perfectly with the RISD experience. The youngsters were learning about right, acute and obtuse angles, and parallel and perpendicular lines.

“They love the hands-on activity, building things, seeing what kind of structures are stronger than others,” Kranowitz said. “It’s a different way of doing a math lesson, great for all different kinds of learners.”

Ten-year-old Tamar initially began connecting her dowels with clay, but switched course and opted for small foam cylinders, constructing a pyramid topped by a towering antenna with yet another foam cylinder.

“I like that we can build stuff and see how it holds up and doesn’t,” she explained.

Asked what class she liked best in school, Tamar responded without hesitation, “Art!”

Had she realized that art was connected to science and math?

“Not really,” she said.

Therein lies one deliberate intention of these collaborative RISD/Brown University outreach sessions.

Lange said the budding relationship with JCDS and students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) clubs at RISD and Brown, both Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR partner institutions, involved figuring out how to combine art and science in a meaningful way.

“A lot of times, when we collaborate with art and science, art acts more of a visual element rather than a process of thinking,” she said. “We’re trying to see if this iterative process or problem solving can come through. We want to see if the way artists think — rather than just their work or what they end up with — has any impact on how the kids learn.”

Morales said she and Lange sought to get the students thinking about how two dimensional shapes become three dimensional forms as well as how humans and animals are architects, and how shapes inform design.

Morales, who is pursuing a master’s degree in art and design education, said the outreach provided the opportunity to see what methods worked best in the classroom: “It’s really inspiring to be around that energy. The kids get their hands on things and build. It brings an excitement to learning. There are no constraints on their imagination.”

As a prospective teacher, Morales said she was particularly interested in observing how different models of education worked.

“How can we create spaces in the schedule for integrated learning that’s really authentic and project-based?” she asked.

Lange added, “It’s really fun to see how this learning process can go as young as these children are, how it works early on rather than waiting until you get to college like with me. I didn’t get exposure to this kind of thinking until I got to college.”

Adam Tilove, JCDS head of school, said this type of exchange met his vision of design thinking and discovering, where learning is driven by students and based on their passions and interests.

And, he said, bringing in college students to work with elementary school-age children benefits all involved — the college students gain from the teaching experience and the younger students reap the benefits of learning from someone new and in different ways.

“It’s great to mix it up,” Tilove said. “The spirit of what they are teaching fits perfectly into the mission of the school — hands-on, embracing creativity. There is no letter in STEAM for creativity, but it goes hand in hand.”

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle