Young Students

• Young students in preschool and the early elementary years can use arts and crafts projects to learn about basic scientific concepts such as animal life and plants. Additionally, early learners can use the arts to discover and experiment with the scientific process. Teachers looking to complement a life sciences/biology lesson can create unique animal or plant-shaped crafts from basic art materials. For example, students can use paper to make a mock snake, draw pictures of favorite animals, make an animal sculpture out of modeling clay or try a leaf rubbing with drawing paper and an unwrapped crayon. For an experiment or discovery type project, try a color activity. Allow the children to discover how the primaries work together to make new shades and hues or test how solids turn into liquids and use melting ice cubes for a watercolor painting.
  
  

Older Students

• Students in upper elementary school and higher may need to take on a more advanced science arts and crafts project than their younger counterparts. Teachers can try an extended nature-based art activity involving the scientific process. Have students make a science/art journal out of cardboard and drawing paper. They can take the journal out into the field (i.e., outside area on the school's grounds) to sketch what they see and use colored pencils to draw pictures that accompany notes on the area's biology. Ask the students to pretend that they are scientists or naturalists researching a specific habitat.
  
  

Background

• No matter what the child's age is, students (and sometimes parents) may want to understand the reasoning or background behind using arts and crafts projects as science activities. Art and science often go hand in hand. This can be as simple as finding the artistic or aesthetic beauty in the natural world, or the more involved arts that have sprung from technological advances such as digital media. For example, the Art & Science Collaborations organization exists to help the public better understand how artists and scientists intersect in their goals and work. Students should understand that these two fields, art and science, often overlap in their uses. Both may involve exploratory or discovery-based activities that lead to an inquiry-based project format.
  
  

Technology

• Enhance a science and technology project with an arts and crafts activity. Kids can use computers to create unique crafts built on the science of modern technological advances. Teachers may want to start with a discussion about technology and how artists and crafts people have begun to use it as a means to create. This may include points on photography, design or even architecture. Make the project hands-on by encouraging the students to use a computer to make their own art. This can be a simple project, such as using a digital drawing program, or a more advanced activity involving manipulating images and photos with an art-based media software program.