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Water: A Source of Life and Culture
Description Time Frame Curricular Areas Grades Essential Questions Water in Africa website (or photocopies of the essays and photos) Visual Arts Standard 3—Knows a range of subject matter, symbols, and potential ideas in
the visual arts Visual Arts Standard 5—Understands the characteristics and merits of one's own artwork and
the artwork of others Language Arts Standard 4—Gathers and uses information for research purposes
Benchmark—Synthesizes
a variety of types of visual information, including pictures and symbols, for research
topics Geography Standard 4—Understands the physical and human characteristics of place National Science Education Standards Students will
Day 1 1. Introduce the activity by distributing the first graphic organizer, "Where Do Artists Get Ideas?" (PDF or RTF) Give students 10–15 minutes to complete the organizer on their own, then incorporate students' ideas into an organizer for the entire class (using the chalkboard or an overhead projector). Emphasize the fact that artists are inspired through different avenues, and artists often must research a topic before creating a work of art. Art not only heightens our aesthetic sensibilities; it can also raise our awareness about specific issues. 2. Inform students that they will create a work of art based on how the natural resource water affects cultures. 3. Ask students to consider how water shapes their daily life, community, and culture. Distribute the graphic organizer, "Water in Daily Life: Our Culture." (PDF or RTF)4. Use the "Guiding Questions" (PDF or RTF) to help students respond to the topics. 5. Have students present their information, in order to create a class chart. Two methods may be used to collect and record information: (a) Each topic is listed on individual chart paper and posted around the room. Students move from chart to chart recording their responses to each topic without duplicating information. (b) One class chart is created (using the chalkboard or an overhead projector), which includes all topics, and each student is asked to respond to one topic. 6. Ask students what conclusions can be drawn from the information collected. Record this information on a separate chart. 7. Homework (optional): Have students use the same graphic organizer, "Water in Daily Life: Our Culture," (PDF or RTF) to record responses from members of their families. Day 2 1. Begin with a review and discussion of the first two essential questions, "Where do artists get ideas?" and "How do natural resources affect cultures?" 2. Review the class organizer, "Where Do Artists Get Ideas?" (PDF or RTF) and make any additions or changes. 3. Review the class organizer, "Water in Daily Life: Our Culture," and make any additions or changes based upon information gathered from the homework activity. 4. Divide the class into groups of four students and distribute the chart "Symbols of Water: Our Culture."(PDF or RTF) Have each student in the group choose two topics from their chart "Water in Daily Life: Our Culture," such as recreation or transportation. Instruct the groups to work together to ensure that all topics are covered and there is no duplication of topics. 5. Have each student expand upon the two topics chosen from the chart "Water in Daily Life: Our Culture," and record a more detailed description in the first column titled "What is important" in the chart "Symbols of Water: Our Culture." (PDF or RTF) 6. Introduce the essential question "How can symbols be used to communicate an idea or concept?" Ask students to explain the meaning of a symbol. (A symbol can be defined as a simplified expression of a complex idea or meaning.) After defining the term, ask students to give examples of symbols that they see on a daily basis. Prompt a discussion with questions such as, Why are symbols used? Can symbols be misunderstood? What could cause the misunderstanding of a symbol? 7. After students have described in detail what is important about each of the topics using the graphic organizer, have each student draw a symbol to represent the written idea for each of their topics. One of these symbols will be used at the end of the lesson to create a group collage of symbols. Days 3 and 4 1. After students have completed their organizers about water in our culture, shift the discussion to how water is used in various African countries. Inform students that they will gather information about water usage in a specific African country. Explain to students that, working in their original groups, they will be using the photos, stories, and fact files from the Water in Africa website to find information about how water defines the cultures of specific African countries. Select an African country for each group to study. (Countries should be selected from different regions of the continent in order to provide students with an understanding of the diversity of cultures and geography in Africa.)2. Distribute the graphic organizer"Water in Daily Life: Another Culture," (PDF or RTF) and ask students to complete the chart on their own, using information from the Water in Africa website about their group's specific country. After each student collects country-specific information, tell them to return to their group and share the information they have collected. Have students, using their graphic organizer"Water in Daily Life: Another Culture," (PDF or RTF) record new information gathered from their classmates. 3. Distribute the organizer"Symbols of Water: Another Culture,"(PDF or RTF) explaining that each student in the group should choose two topics from their chart, "Water in Daily Life" (such as recreation or transportation) to complete the section "What is important?" Once again, instruct the groups to work together to ensure that all topics are covered and that there is no duplication. 4. Have each student expand upon the two topics chosen from the chart "Water in Daily Life: Another Culture," (PDF or RTF) and record a more detailed description about its importance in the first column of the chart "Symbols of Water: Another Culture." (PDF or RTF) In order to write a more detailed description of the topic, students should use the resources of Peace Corps Volunteers from the Water in Africa website. 5. After students have written detailed topic descriptions, ask each student to draw a symbol in the second column of the organizer "Symbols of Water: Another Culture" (PDF or RTF) that represents the written idea for each of their two topics. One of these symbols will be used at the end of the lesson to create a group collage of symbols. Day 5 and until complete 1. Have students choose one symbol from each of the organizers, representing water in our culture, and water in the culture of an African community. 2. Distribute two sheets of black construction paper to each student, asking the students to draw the outline of each symbol on separate sheets. Symbols should be cut from the same size paper and should fill the entire piece of paper in order to maintain consistency in size. The neutral black paper is used to achieve high contrast silhouettes and reduces misinterpretation of the symbols. (The use of color would require an additional lesson on color symbolism.) 3. After outlining the symbols, students cut out the shapes. To add more details to the symbols, students may cut out shapes within the silhouette to help define the symbol. 1. Explain that each group that will be assembling its symbols into a collection that illustrates the question, How does water define cultures? Each group should have two collections of symbols. One collection will communicate how water defines culture in the students' lives and the second collection will communicate how water defines culture in the lives of people from a specific African community. 2. Have students mount their collection of symbols on the wall and begin to consider the meaning created by the collection. Alterations and additions can be made if needed. Collections should be mounted in a manner that will facilitate comparing two different cultures and regions. 3. The rubric "Evaluation of Art Product" (PDF or RTF) to evaluate the entire process. Students should self-evaluate by writing about the content of their group's collection of symbols and their individual contribution to design and content. Follow-up Activities Additional Resources About the Author
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