Learning Activity

Photo-Sensitive Chemical Reactions

Subject Area

Science
Arts Education

Grade(s)

8

Overview

In this activity, students collaborate to plan a piece of art which reflects personal and cultural significance. Students work together to produce a cyanotype silhouette print using light-sensitive chemicals. During the cyanotype process, students will trace the chemical reaction backwards to identify the activation energy and how energy transfers. Students then write an explanation of the selection process for each item in their group's artistic composition.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 8

SC15.8.5

Observe and analyze characteristic properties of substances (e.g., odor, density, solubility, flammability, melting point, boiling point) before and after the substances combine to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.8.5

Vocabulary

  • Characteristic properties (e.g., odor, density, solubility, flammability, melting point, boiling point)
  • Substances
  • Chemical reaction

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Each pure substance has characteristic physical and chemical properties that can be used to identify it.
  • Characteristic properties of substances may include odor, density, solubility, flammability, melting point, and boiling point.
  • Chemical reactions change characteristic properties of substances.
  • Substances react chemically in characteristic ways.
  • In a chemical process, the atoms that make up the original substances are regrouped into different molecules, and these new substances have different properties from those of the reactants.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Observe characteristic physical and chemical properties of pure substances before and after they interact.
  • Analyze characteristic physical and chemical properties of pure substances before and after they interact.
  • Analyze the properties to identify patterns (i.e., similarities and differences), including the changes in physical and chemical properties of each substance before and after the interaction.
  • Use the analysis to determine whether a chemical reaction has occurred.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Observations and analyses can be used to determine whether a chemical reaction has occurred.
  • The change in properties of substances is related to the rearrangement of atoms in the reactants and products in a chemical reaction (e.g., when a reaction has occurred, atoms from the substances present before the interaction must have been rearranged into new configurations, resulting in the properties of new substances).

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 8 - Visual Arts

AE17.VA.8.5

Plan select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear works of art using traditional and/or digital methods.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.VA.8.5

Vocabulary

  • Creative Processes
  • Organize and develop ideas
  • Traditional Media
  • Contemporary Media
  • Fair Use
  • Open Source
  • Creative Commons
  • Develop artistic ideas
  • Plagiarizing
  • Graffiti
  • Defacing
  • Criteria
  • Refine and complete artistic work
  • Archival
  • Criteria
  • Cultural Context
  • Body of Artwork
  • Collaborate
  • Medium/ Media
  • Genre

Essential Questions

EU: People create and interact with objects, places, and design that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
EQ: How do objects, places, and design shape lives and communities? How do artists and designers determine goals for designing or redesigning objects, places, or systems? How do artists and designers create works of art or design that effectively communicate?

Skills Examples

  • Create a pre-drawing self-portrait at the beginning of a drawing unit and compare it to a finished self-portrait at the end of the unit.
  • Write a survey at the beginning of a course to communicate prior knowledge and apprehensions of creating artwork and skill levels. At the end of the course review the survey to reflect on progress.
  • Collaborate with other students to create a legacy project, communication-based posters or a mural.
  • Collaboratively or individually compare, contrast and investigate self -portraits and social media selfies.
  • Create an artwork that explores new techniques, with the understanding that the artwork is experimental.
  • After exploring Tibetan sand mandalas, write a reflection, that highlights the importance of the process over product.
  • Discuss, examine and describe the use and misuses of appropriating (plagiarizing) copyrighted artworks and designs.
  • Describe the difference between the intent of graffiti vandalism and urban street art and the effects on various communities- compare defacing with creating.
  • Create an artwork implementing ideas, organizational elements, foundations, skills, and techniques of visual art in a traditional and/or digital method.
  • Engage - for the purposes of personal reflection and on-going improvement, group critiques.
  • Create a rubric with teacher input to be used for evaluation purposes.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 8 - Visual Arts

AE17.VA.8.10

Collaboratively discuss how a person’s aesthetic choices are influenced by culture and environment and how these influences impact the visual images that one creates.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.VA.8.10

Vocabulary

  • Creative Processes
  • Organize and develop ideas
  • Traditional Media
  • Contemporary Media
  • Fair Use
  • Open Source
  • Creative Commons
  • Develop artistic ideas
  • Plagiarizing
  • Graffiti
  • Defacing
  • Criteria
  • Refine and complete artistic work
  • Archival
  • Criteria
  • Cultural Context
  • Body of Artwork
  • Collaborate
  • Medium/ Media
  • Genre

Essential Questions

EU: Individual aesthetic and empathetic awareness developed through engagement with art can lead to understanding and appreciation of self, others, the natural world, and constructed environments.
EQ: How do life experiences the way you relate to art? How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world? What can we learn from our responses to art?

Skills Examples

  • Examine and discuss how geographical, cultural, and historical perspectives represented in visual artworks influence an artist's personal aesthetic criteria.
  • Determine how the personal aesthetic choices reflected in one's own visual artworks are influenced by geography, culture, and history.
  • Distinguish between various artworks (in a variety of media) based upon each work's context, and aesthetic, stylistic, thematic, and/or technical content.
  • Analyze how an artist's design choices influence the feelings and ideas of the intended audience.
  • Demonstrate creative, presentation, and responding processes, with attention to applying the characteristics of form and structure, media, and art making approaches to interpret and describe the mood and messages of a work of art.
  • Evaluate a variety of visual artworks, identifying the personal aesthetic choices represented in each and explaining how these choices reflect the influence of geography, culture, and history.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Phase

After/Explain/Elaborate
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  1. Students will be able to work collaboratively to select and organize objects to make a rough draft of a cyanotype print.
  2. Students will be able to understand cultural influences that impact their choices in the art-making process.
  3. Students will be able to draw a diagram to trace the process of a chemical reaction and identify the flow of energy.
  4. Students will be able to work collaboratively to produce a cyanotype chemical print. 

Activity Details

  1. Students view the Cyanotype video clip. 
  2. In a darkened room, student groups paint the photo-sensitive chemicals onto white construction/art papers. The paper is left in the dark to dry, then stored in storage boxes that don't allow light to pass through.  
  3. Each student in the group should bring in one item that is important to their life or their culture to place over their paper when it is exposed to the sunlight. Student groups practice designing their composition using an untreated piece of paper. They create a rough draft with a list of items and an explanation of why they chose each item.
  4. Prepared papers are taken outside in the storage boxes and students place the objects for their composition directly on the paper and expose the paper to sunlight according to the directions with the chemicals.
  5. While the paper is processing for 15-20 minutes in the sunlight, students draw a diagram of the process. They should include labels that trace the flow of energy, identify the source of activation energy, and label the signs of a chemical reaction that are occurring.
  6. Students remove their objects and bring their papers to trays/shallow pans of water to wash off the chemicals.
  7. The cyanotype prints are left flat to dry.
  8. Students write an explanation of what each group member, including themselves, brought to add to their composition and the reason for its significance.
Assessment Strategies

Assessment Strategies

Student diagrams are evaluated for accuracy in tracing the process, identifying activation energy, and labeling signs of a chemical reaction.

Student rough drafts of composition plans are evaluated for thoughtful and intentional planning.

Student post-project writing is evaluated for evidence of collaboration and understanding of cultural and environmental influences that impacted their artwork.

 

Variation Tips

Students research the elements in the two chemicals used in the process, potassium ferrocyanide and ferric ammonium citrate. They draw atomic models using the chemical formulas.

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

1.  The chemicals will need to be ordered prior to this activity. They can be found inexpensively on Amazon at this link.

2.  Additional materials needed are:

    • white construction/art paper
    • paintbrushes
    • cups/containers for chemicals
    • newspaper to cover work surface when painting
    • cardboard boxes or opaque plastic storage tubs
    • access to hose/running water
    • shallow plastic pans for rinsing

3.  Helpful additional materials are:

    • flashlights
    • red transparent film
    • digital devices with internet access

Digital Tools / Resources

The Cyanotype: Photographic Process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0hiBi5c4Y

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

hollyhevans
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