The Canyon Vista STEAM (Students Teaching Elderly Adults through Mentoring) with Ceramics Club is funded by the Innovative Schools Grant, PTA, and Mrs. Nicole Hagerty, principal. The Club began in October 2019.
Mary Loera and Stephanie Pollard, art educators at Canyon Vista Middle School, have been working with the students and residents of the Austin Wellness and Rehabilitation Facility to create and facilitate a collaborative vision for a ceramic art piece. Through this club, they have been teaching a rigorous approach to Ceramics linking art to the other disciplines associated with STEAM. In turn, developing new ideas to help promote creative thinking and problem solving skills.
Students meet with a resident from the Austin Wellness and Rehabilitation Facility to create a collaborative ceramic piece. At the first meeting, the residents and students introduce themselves, start conversations to get to know one another, and brainstorm an idea together. The students then return to the studio to create a piece, either functional or decorative, based on the findings of the interview. After the project is fired in the kiln, students return to the facility to glaze the work with the residents. The photos are showing the students helping the residents with the glazing process. At the final meeting, on December 18, just before Christmas, students will present the finished piece to the residents.
Mary and Stephanie feel that the students involved in STEAM with Ceramic Club have the opportunity to further enrich their skills in project-based learning and see how art relates to cross-curricular disciplines of S.T.E.A.M., as well as, enrich the lives of themselves and the residents of Austin Wellness and Rehabilitation Facility.