Phase: | During/Explore/Explain |
Activity: | 1. Show students images of the mobiles of Alexander Calder from the Calder Foundation Website. Discuss how mobiles are a form of art. Ask students what they like and dislike about Calder's mobiles and what comes to mind when they see them. When showing examples of Alexander Calder’s artwork (specifically the hanging mobiles), connect his work to a previous lesson the students might have learned about the principles of balanced and unbalanced forces/motion, stability, the center of gravity, etc. Explain that he uses a combination of engineering and art to create his artwork. 2. Have students explore building a mobile using the vectorypark.com online lever game. 3. Have students explore constructing mobiles by tying a string around the middle of a ruler and tie or tape the loose end of the string to a sturdy place so that the ruler is dangling. Use a hole punch to put a hole in the rim of two paper cups and attach the cups to opposite ends of the ruler by tying the loose ends of the string to the ends of the ruler. Have students place various amounts of small objects in the cups to find an equilibrium. Students can experiment with the position of the fulcrum (the string tied to the middle of the ruler), the weight of the loads in the cups, and the lengths of the strings and record their observations about their experiment. (Mobiles worksheets are available on the ArtsEdge digital resource.) 4. Have students work individually or in groups to create an artistic mobile of their own using materials that they have brainstormed and identified as useful and appropriate. Students should write statements to go with their mobiles identifying what they used for the lever and the fulcrum as well as what materials they used for their loads and how they found the equilibrium for their mobile. Ask students to tell how their knowledge of levers and equilibrium helped in their design choices and execution of their artistic mobiles. |
Assessment Strategies: | Students will be assessed by the observations they wrote down during their coat hanger experiment. Students artistic mobiles will also be assessed for creativity and innovation in material choice. Students can respond to the following questions for further assessment: What is a mobile? Why is it important for engineers to know about balanced and unbalanced forces? Why is it important for artists to know about balanced and unbalanced forces?
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Advanced Preparation: | This learning activity should be done after a lesson on balanced and unbalanced forces. Students will need access to computers and internet to explore the vector park digital game. The teacher will need access to a computer and a digital projector to show students images from the digital tool, calder.org. The teacher should prepare materials for the experiment; rulers, string, tape, paper cups, and a hole punch. The teacher should also prepare various materials for artistic mobiles, including but not limited to; hangers, wire, string, tape, small toys (plastic zoo animals, cars, etc.), construction paper, foam shapes, streamers, balloons, and a variety of other materials. |
Variation Tips (optional): | |
Notes or Recommendations (optional): | The inspiration for this learning activity came from The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge lesson Alexander Calder: Master of Balance and can be found at the following website: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-5/Alexander_Calder_Master_of_Balance#Instruction |
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