This past week, students presented a glow art show at the HEART Academy at Julian Newman.

“The students learned about the Amazon rainforest, and they also learned about fluorescence and bioluminescence, and we researched certain animals. and then we mostly looked at slideshows or videos for the kids to learn about specific animals. Then, I would show them how to draw the animal that we’re going to be making or make it out of clay, and then they would have to paint, color, you know, add all the colors to them after that. So, it was a pretty long process, and every grade level did two different animals,” said Leah Pierce with the HEART Academy.

The materials were purchased with a $1,200 Dekko grant.

“I had fluorescent tempera paint, fluorescent watercolor, neon oil pastels, I think that’s pretty much it. It was all paint, and I didn’t use any markers or colored pencils. So mostly just neon paint,” said Pierce.

The grant allowed Pierce to give students at both the SPARK Academy at Cowart and HEART students an opportunity to create glow art.

“The grant was written so that I could do this glow art show at both of my schools. So, I did one at SPARK Academy back in March, and the theme of that one was the ocean theme. So, we’ve already done that one and as part of the grant proposal it needed to be done at both schools,” said Pierce.

The idea originated from a project-based learning unit at SPARK.

“It came from a conversation with our music teacher at SPARK Academy, trying to tie into the project-based learning unit on light and sound there. So, I thought it would be fun to tie in with her music that’s about light and have a glow light show to go with it. So, that’s where the original idea came from,” said Pierce.

The show gave students the opportunity to express creativity and then display their work to their peers, teachers and parents.

“I hope that to see it displayed like that as part of a school-wide art show. made them feel proud and excited about art. I hope that they learned a lot about the Amazon rainforest animals. and maybe sparked an interest in learning more and just getting more confidence in their artistic abilities,” said Pierce.