Invertebrate art HPGE enrichment program
Creative arts
Program
Students will collect invertebrates, observe their features and environment, and create artworks inspired by them. The artworks will include watercolours, scratch art, scientific drawings and a painted canvas.
Learning intentions
- We are learning to identify invertebrates and their structural features?
- We are learning to represent the details of living things in artworks.
Activities
Invertebrate hunt
The focus of this session is for students to work cooperatively to explore a variety of habitats and to collect invertebrates using simple equipment.
Students will work in small groups to search for and collect leaf litter invertebrates in the gardens around the education centre. Collected specimens will then be examined using magnifiers.
Invertebrate art
Students examine the features of one or two chosen invertebrates using a range of magnifying equipment, paying particular attention to detail including numbers of legs, sections of the body, colour, shape, structure, texture and patterns found on the invertebrate.
After careful observation and study of an invertebrate, students will create an artwork on canvas. This will involve the use of a variety of media including rollers, pencil, cardboard and paint.
Bushwalk
The focus of the bushwalk is for students to observe the habits in the natural environment in which invertebrates can be found. The bushwalk will traverse a variety of environments from the moist vegetation found along the creeks to the dry woodland along the slopes of the reserve.
Many invertebrate species will remain hidden during the walk so particular emphasis will be placed on looking for animal evidence such as tracks and sounds.
The needs of invertebrates in their environment and the important role of invertebrates in the bushland environment will be emphasised.
This program is only available to NSW Department of Education school students.
