Jamestown (CSi)  May 6, 2016– Third grade students from Washington Elementary and fourth grade students from Louis L’Amour Elementary in Jamestown will display large-scale pyramids created using original student art work through their studies of art elements: color, form, line, shape, and texture along with the studies of geometry: nets as the transformation from 2-dimensional shape to 3-dimensional solid figures. The students will perform a professionally choreographed set of movements interacting with the 2D nets used to create the 3D pyramid.

“STEAM isn’t so much about building a relationship between the Arts and STEM, but about reintegrating the two in the classroom,” said Rebecca Engelman of the North Dakota Council on Arts, “Because there is overlap between the creative process and the scientific method, utilizing arts integration techniques in STEM can benefit the students in learning both artistic and STEM concepts and ultimately increase creativity.”

This project is a collaborative effort between Jamestown Public Schools, Jamestown Arts Center, North Dakota Council on the Arts, Northern Plains Dance in Bismarck, and Newman Signs. The pyramid project came about as a result of a STEAM grant through the North Dakota Council on the Arts. The art aspect of the project was inspired by the work of Brazilian Neo-pop artist, Romero Britto’s 45 foot pyramid in Hyde Park, London celebrating the return exhibit of Tutankhamun. The mathematical component was identified through the team’s discovery of a learning gap created by the transition from old state content standards to the current standards and observation of students’ struggle to connect with the concept of transforming 2D to a 3D object beyond the traditional school models.

The team of teachers, artists, and administration meets monthly to (engage in an art experience/ create art) and then translates that experience into arts integration lessons for the classroom. Arts integrated lessons are equal parts art and content. The parts support each other and neither would be as strong without the other. The Pyramids on the Prairie will be the culminating event of a three year journey that has included teachers creating art, book studies, partnering with community organizations and businesses, attending the Arts Integration conference at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and most importantly working toward art and content as equal partners for learning, creating, collaborating, and inventing.