Wednesday, October 31, 2012

compass rose designs on metal


This lesson corresponded to a lot of my student's studies in math and social studies which was great. 
They are currently studying fractions and by designing our compasses by thinking in terms of 1/4's and 1/8's this really established a strong connection. 
We discussed the purpose of a compass and a compass rose, where and why they are used, and how far back in history they have been used. 



 
Students had to accurately show the viewer where the cardinal and intermediate directions on their compass were by pointing to the 8 directions. The use of the corresponding letters (NEWS) was optional. 
They also had to use a ruler and demonstrate purposely use of texture.



7 comments:

  1. Wow, these are great! Did the children use colours to draw on the metal or is it sort of embossed? Did you use a special kind of metal? Looks like a really good interdisciplinary idea!

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  2. Beautiful work. I have a couple rolls of tooling foil gathering dust in my storeroom - this would be ideal for that media. Looks like permanent markers for color - is that right?

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  3. I took for granted that teachers would be familiar with this material, my bad!
    I took pictures of the steps and materials needed today and will post them tonight.
    To color on the foil you need colored sharpies though. Metallic markers also work.

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    1. Did you post the step by step photos somewhere? I would love to see them. Beautiful project!

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    2. I love this idea and they look amazing. Will you briefly explain what you did step by step for a new Art Teacher here? Thank you in advance. I love it!

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  4. Amazing designs! I have added a link to my article about the history of compass roses at Newtonsapple.org.uk You should also look at the beautiful replica of the compass rose from the Cantino world map of 1502. Pure class!

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    1. Thank you so much Steven! I just checked out your website and it is a truly wonderful resource. I'm honored to be a part of it. I will surely use it in my project planning and pass it on to my fellow educators.

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