Liz Hornik’s class brings dinosaurs to life.
Building Art Cars In Class
Lafayette High School teacher, Liz Hornik, is already busy building an art car and art bikes with her students for the Scenic City Art Car Parade. Liz has built art cars with her students in the past and was thrilled to have an opportunity to build one locally. Art car curriculum encourages students to work as a team to create a finished art car and serve as a catalyst to encourage learning, incorporate critical thinking skills, instill a sense of achievement, and show these students how they can play a vital role in their community. Art car curriculum is scalable to almost any grade level and can cover a range of arts integration and transferable skills such as: social studies, science, mathematics, writing, design, welding, automotive maintenance, upholstery, etc – the opportunities are numerous based on the kind of art car and grade level. We are creating award categories for the student entries. The only exception, will be the people’s Choice Award will be open to every entrant.
Here are a few examples of art cars created by students:
Poe Elementary’s “Art Car, Art Car”
This image with a close up detail depicts a perfect example of a pattern or montage where the students each work on an individual element to create a finished work of art.
Waltrip High School’s “Atomic Dog”
This art car was such a hit that George Clinton himself showed up to personally autograph this homage to funk. It made a big difference to the community too. “The kids developed this incredible sense of camaraderie. And this sense of pride wasn’t just confined to these 30 kids, it spread to the other kids in the school, their teachers, and the kids’ families. By the day of the Art Car Parade we had the whole Second Ward behind us.”
-Rebecca Bass, Teacher
Hurst Euless Bedford School District
This video is for educational purposes only to show the art car program from Hurst Euless Beford School District and documents their amazing transformation. In 2009, the HEB ISD Art car project received the People’s Choice Award and 2nd Place Youth Group Award at the 22nd Annual Houston Art Car Parade. This video was uploaded with permission by Carolyn Mercantel, the creator of this documentary.
<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/oTw0TU4yYX0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Reaching The Community
You do not have to build an art car to learn a lot from one. Art cars provide a unique way to engage children and teach more than art. This is what our Art Car Caravan can accomplish on April 13th, 2012 in area schools. Here is an example from Baylor College of Medicine.
Baylor College of Medicine Delivers a Healthy Message to Kids
To increase awareness about the primary prevention of cancer among school-aged children, the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine collaborated with the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and The Health Museum to create a fun and engaging cancer prevention activity sheet targeted to elementary school children, accompanied by easy-to-use lesson plans for teachers, called “Germie the Unhealthy Car.” The activities stress eating fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and maintaining a healthy body weight. The Houston Independent School District is distributed the sheet to 55,000 elementary school students and 10,000 more sheets were distributed along the 2009 Art Car Parade route, at the Texas Children’s Hospital, and at the Health Museum.
While elementary school children learned how to get “Germie, the Unhealthy Car” well in time for the art car parade, The Office of Outreach and Health Disparities partnered with students from the Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, under the supervision of their art teacher, Treena Rowan, and renowned artist and health professional, Shelley Buschur to create Germie’s healthy counterpart. The result was, “You are What You Eat: Toni the Healthy Eating Cart”. Students, artist, and teacher worked together to create this unique golf cart in time to participate in The 2009 Art Car Parade. Students enrolled in the art class came up with a theme that promotes healthy eating to decrease the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. The cart has a variety of fruits and vegetables attached to the golf cart and is topped off with a cabbage head.
Since 2009, Toni the Healthy Eating Cart has made several appearances throughout the greater Houston area and continues to educate students about healthy eating habits. To see the curriculum and activity sheet, click here.
