[Lesson Plans Banner]

4 Different Ways to View Our City

Alison M. Hildebrandt
Eastern Heights Junior High, Elyria, Ohio

Subject: Art Education
Grade: 7

"Students made magnificent abstract paintings based upon their realistic photographs."

Purpose and Description of Project

In order to expand her students' view of their city-both visually and in their mind's eye-Alison Hildebrandt designed a project that offered them four different viewpoints: a satellite view, a bird's-eye view, a human's-eye view, and a bug's-eye view. Following a pre-test and an exercise in visualizing, students explored satellite photos with the help of videotapes, slides, and publications on NASA's LANDSAT photography. The aerial or bird's-eye view was introduced by a guest speaker from the Lorain County Tax Mapping Department. He brought a series of aerial photos which students used to locate such features as a quarry and an orchard. Students then watched a filmstrip on maps and mapping skills, and, using maps of Elyria and Lorain County, they completed a search-and-find worksheet.

Student-taken photographs were the focus of the segments on a human's-eye and a bug's-eye view. Hildebrandt identified the parts of the camera and demonstrated loading and operating procedures. Students each took home a camera and shot six subjects from both the human's and the bug's viewpoints. In class, the students compared their photos and made use of all four views at the same time to complete a compare-and-contrast exercise.

Students then selected one of three art projects to complete:

  1. Select a small portion of one of the photos and enlarge it into a large, abstract tempera painting.
  2. Cut and assemble your 12 photos into a montage and do a painting based on the design.
  3. Trace your route to school from a map and use this as a design for a painting.

Finally, students cut out models of their homes which they taped onto an aerial photograph with strings connecting the model to the actual location and completed a post-test which covered the entire project.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Videotapes, slides, maps, and publications were the primary resources for map activities as well as for the first two viewpoints. The Lorain County Tax Mapping Department donated aerial maps and a county map for each student. The Teacher Resource Room staff at NASA's Lewis Research Center made free copies of LANDSAT videotapes on the blank tapes provided by Hildebrandt.

Students used school-purchased Kodak cameras and 12-exposure color film to capture the last two viewpoints.

Outcomes and Adaptability

Because most students had never flown in a plane, they were fascinated by how structures looked in the aerial photos. Their awareness of the locations and relationships of places and features in the city increased, as did their map-reading skills. Learning to use a camera themselves generated great pride in their photos; none of them selected the photo montage activity because, "They were so possessive of their prize pictures that they could not bear the thought of cutting them up."

Hildebrandt advises that NASA has used LANDSAT to photograph the entire country and can provide reasonably priced slides. The only view that might be difficult is the aerial view if the county cannot provide such photos.

Hildebrandt suggests that "this project could be transferred to another city or town, as well as to other age groups, and especially to other subjects"-map skills in social studies, shapes and angles in math, and city planning in government.

| More Lesson Plans | Digital Learning Center - Educators |