STEAM Challenge: The Great Barrier Reef in 3D
For the past few years, during “Biology Week”, the Royal Society of Biology has launched their BioArtAttack 3D competition, inviting people of all ages to fuse biology and art to create biology-themed artworks inspired by the natural world. These can be anything from collages to models, sculptures or animations.
We only found out about this competition a short while ago, while the Conflicted Parent was trying to find new ways to channel the kids’ creativity into activities that also provide learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering and maths. This yielded a whole list of STEAM challenges (the ‘A’, for art, is critical), but we only had a few days left to enter BioArtAttack 3D. What to do?
Having a naturally expressive creative child helps. Over the past several months, week in, week out, they’ve been attending art classes at our local art-K studio. This has resulted in a huge profusion of artworks using different media, materials and techniques. The theme of the Great Barrier Reef pretty much suggested itself as they had covered it in school while discussing ecosystems and there were already some relevant pieces (a beach/sea scene and a sea turtle).
The process of creating a 3D artwork is a valuable STEAM activity for parents to do with their children. It encourages children to think creatively and critically, while also developing their scientific knowledge and skills. To create a 3D artwork, children need to plan, design, and build their creation, which also involves a range of skills such as problem-solving, spatial awareness, and fine motor skills. It’s the full package!
The complete vision of how to take all these elements, create and add a few more and then combine them into a 3D ‘diorama’ of the Great Barrier Reef just seemed to spring fully formed into the Conflicted Parent’s child’s mind. This is one of the aspects of creativity that always astounds the Conflicted Parent. Did we all have this ability as children, and if so, how/when did we lose it?
We spent the rest of the afternoon researching and then recreating the various creatures and plants to add to the scene: sea stars, clownfish, anemones and coral. They repurposed some cardboard out of the recycling bin with some blue paint as the base and put everything together.
The competition submission needed some labels and lists of materials. We could have done this by hand, but the afternoon was turning into evening and the submission date loomed, so the Conflicted Parent made good use of their ICT skills to do this digitally.
In conclusion, we all had a fun time researching and building the final artwork, while learning things almost without noticing. I’d say that was a job well done, wouldn’t you?