ECOSYSTEM PRINTMAKING GA FOUNDATIONAL 4-5

ECOSYSTEM PRINTMAKING

ECOSYSTEM PRINTMAKING

Learning Description

Students will explore food chains/webs by researching different ecosystems and identifying the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers. They will design and carve a styrofoam printing plate that represents an organism’s role in the food chain/web (e.g., producer, consumer or decomposer). Students will create a collaborative class food chain/web, illustrating how energy moves through an ecosystem. This arts-integrated lesson blends science and the visual arts to deepen students’ understanding of food chains/webs while allowing them to express their knowledge through creative printmaking!

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS: VISUAL ARTS & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • What are producers, consumers, and decomposers?
  • How does energy flow through a food chain/web?
  • How can printmaking be used to model the relationships between organisms?
  • How do different organisms depend on one another for survival?

Essential Questions

  • I can describe the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
  • I can explain how energy moves through a food chain/web.
  • I can create a print that represents an organism’s role in a food chain/web.
  • I can collaborate with my classmates to create a food chain/web using printmaking.

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

S4L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the roles of organisms and the flow of energy within an ecosystem.

a. Develop a model to describe the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in a community.

b. Develop simple models to illustrate the flow of energy through a food web/food chain beginning with sunlight and including producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Arts Standards

VA.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA.CR.3 Understand and apply media, techniques, processes, and concepts of two-dimensional art.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 5:

5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can create scenes and write scripts using story elements and structure.

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Ecosystem – A community of living and nonliving things that interact
  • Producer – An organism that makes its own food, like plants
  • Consumer – An organism that eats other organisms for energy
  • Decomposer – An organism that breaks down dead plants and animals
  • Food chain – A sequence showing how energy moves from one organism to another
  • Food web – A network of connected food chains

Arts Vocabulary

  • Printmaking – The art or technique of making prints, especially as practiced in engraving, etching, dry point, woodcut or serigraphy
  • Styrofoam printing plate – A carved surface used to make repeated prints
  • Brayer – A small roller for inking type by hand, usually for making a proof
  • Composition – How an artist arranges the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, value, color, space, texture) to create an artwork

 

Materials

  • Science food chain reference materials
  • Pencils
  • Copy paper
  • Styrofoam sheets
  • Dull pencils or ball point pens
  • Water based printing ink
  • Brayers
  • Newsprint or packing paper
  • Paper for printing (mixed media paper works well)
  • Colored pencils or art sticks
  • Drying rack or space to lay prints
  • Paper towels to wipe ink off of styrofoam plates
  • Trays for ink

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Engage (Explore the Food Chain)

  • Show a video or diagram of a food chain in different ecosystems, such as forest, ocean, grassland, etc.
  • Have students brainstorm different organisms that would exist in these ecosystems and categorize them as producers, consumers, or decomposers.
  • Discuss how energy moves from the sun to plants/producers, to animals/consumers, and then to decomposers.

Work Session

Explore (Sketch & Plan):

  • Each student will choose an organism from a specific ecosystem.
  • Students will sketch the organism and simplify it into bold shapes for printmaking.
  • Ask students to think of examples of symbols and how symbols represent ideas. Then have them think about how to represent their organism symbolically (e.g., arrows or the sun to represent energy flow).

 

Create (Printmaking Process):

  • Introduce and demonstrate the printmaking process:
    • Carving the styrofoam plate:
      • Draw lightly with a pencil before pressing into the styrofoam to avoid mistakes.
      • Use a dull pencil or ballpoint pen to carve designs—press firmly but avoid puncturing all the way through the styrofoam.
      • Keep lines simple and bold for clear prints; intricate details may not transfer well.
      • Vary line thickness for added depth—thicker lines hold more ink, while thinner lines create subtle details.
    • Inking the plate:
      • Roll out a thin, even layer of ink on a tray before applying to the printing plate with a brayer.
      • Then, using the brayer, roll a thin, even layer of ink over the styrofoam plate. Too much ink can make details disappear!
      • Students should take turns rolling ink on the plate while their partner watches for even coverage
    • Printing process:
      • Carefully place the inked plate face down on paper—one student can hold it while the other presses.
      • Use hands or a clean brayer to press firmly and evenly over the entire plate.
      • Lift the plate slowly to reveal the print!

Students may need to repeat this process, experimenting with different amounts of ink and application of pressure when transferring the print.

  • Cleanup and reflection:
    • Lay prints flat to dry before handling.
    • Have students compare their prints and discuss what worked well.
    • If needed, allow students to re-ink and try again.
    • Once prints are dry, add color and details with art stix, crayons, or colored pencils

 

Classroom Tips:

  • Students can work in pairs to create prints.
  • Encourage students to work carefully.
  • Make sure there is a piece of newsprint under each printmaking station.
  • This process works great as a center. Set up a station and allow student pairs to rotate through to create their prints.

 

Closing Reflection

Reflect (Gallery walk and discussion):

  • As a whole group, arrange the prints in a large food web display.
  • Discuss how each organism connects and how energy moves.
  • Have students write a response to the following reflection question: What role does your organism play? How does it depend on others?

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Review student sketches.
  • Think-Pair-Share: Observe whether students can explain their organism's role in the food chain before printing.

Summative

  • Final print and food web display – Does the print clearly represent an organism in the food web?
  • Written reflection–Students can describe how their organism interacts with others.

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Research and incorporate multiple organisms into one print, including producers, consumers, and decomposers.
  • Add habitat details in the background of the print.
  • Create an Interactive Food Web using Google Slides or Canva.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide pre-drawn templates to trace onto styrofoam.
  • Offer sentence starters for the written reflection (e.g., "My organism is a ____. It gets energy from ____.").

 

Additional Resources

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Shannon Green

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

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ART BOTS GA FOUNDATIONAL 4-5

ART BOTS

ART BOTS

Learning Description

In this hands-on STEAM lesson, students will explore the relationship between electricity, motion, and unbalanced forces by designing and building their own wobbling art bots. Using hobby motors, battery packs, pool noodles, and markers, students will follow the engineering design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve) to construct a bot that moves and draws in unpredictable patterns.

Through experimentation, students will discover how unbalanced forces affect motion, how simple circuits power their bots, and how small design changes can alter movement. They will analyze their bots' performance, make modifications, and reflect on their design choices. By combining science, engineering, and art, this lesson fosters creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking while reinforcing foundational physical science concepts.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS: STEAM
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can build a simple circuit to power a motor.
  • I can explain how unbalanced forces affect motion.
  • I can use the engineering design process to create and improve my Art Bot.
  • I can analyze how design choices impact the movement and artwork created by my bot.

Essential Questions

  • How do unbalanced forces affect motion?
  • How does a motor and battery work together to power movement?
  • How can I use the engineering design process to improve my art bot?
  • What design choices influence how my bot moves and draws?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

S4P3: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the relationship between balanced and unbalanced forces and the motion of an object.

Grade 5:

S5P3: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about magnetism and electric circuits.

Arts Standards

VA.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Anchor Standard 7: I can relate visual arts ideas to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Circuit – A complete path through which electricity flows
  • Motor – A device that converts electrical energy into movement
  • Unbalanced force – A force that causes an object to start moving, stop moving, or change direction
  • Vibration – A rapid back-and-forth motion that can create movement

Arts Vocabulary

  • Line – A continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional (wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form) often it is an outline, contour or silhouette.
  • Shape – A flat, enclosed line that is always two-dimensional and can be either geometric or organic
  • Pattern – Repetition of specific visual elements such as a unit of shape or form
  • Texture (visual) – The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Composition – How an artist arranges the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, value, color, space, texture) to create an artwork
  • Collaboration – Working together to create something new
  • Abstract art – Art that does not try to represent real life realistically; often made with shapes, colors, and lines

 

Materials

  • Hobby motors
  • Battery packs (with AA batteries)
  • Pool noodles (cut into smaller sections)
  • Thin markers
  • Tape (masking or electrical)
  • Small weights (paperclips, washers, etc.)
  • Scissors
  • Googly eyes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Foam shapes
  • Image of the Engineering Design Process

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Engage:
    • Hook: Show a short video of a scribble bot or demonstrate a pre-made art bot.
    • Discussion–Ask students:
      • What do you notice about how it moves?
      • What might be making it move this way?
      • How could we create something similar?

Work Session

  • Introduce the Engineering Design Process and explain that students will follow these steps to create their own art bots.
  • Optional: Have students choose or assign a partner to create their bots and artwork.

 

Explore – Building the Art Bots

  • Ask: What materials and design choices will help us create a wobbling art bot?
  • Imagine: Have students brainstorm ideas for how to make an art bot using the provided materials.
  • Plan: Students sketch their design and label the parts and materials they will use.
  • Create: Show students how to create their bots.
    • Attach a motor to a small battery pack.
    • Insert the motor into the center of a pool noodle piece.
    • Tape thin markers as "legs" to hold the bot upright.
    • Add weights to one side of the motor shaft to create an unbalanced motion.
  • Have students place their bot on plain white paper. Turn on the motor and test the movement.

 

Explain – Connecting to Science Concepts

  • Discuss how the unbalanced forces created by the off-center motor make the bot wobble.
  • Relate the motion to concepts like vibration, force, and circuits.
  • Ask students to describe what happened when they turned their bot on.

 

 Improving the Design

  • Improve: Students analyze their bot’s movement and adjust its design to change the motion or artwork produced.
  • Encourage experimentation:
    • Change marker placement for different drawing effects.
    • Add or remove weights to alter movement.
    • Adjust motor positioning to control wobbling direction.
  • Ask your students to think of their art bot as an artistic partner! Ask students what they could add to this artwork to bring it to life. Could they turn the bot's movements into something meaningful or funny or beautiful?
    • Students will add their own hand-drawn designs, shapes, and/or details to enhance the bot’s scribbles.
    • Students will use crayons, colored pencils, or markers to transform the bot’s random motion drawings into imaginative creations (e.g., turning loops into flowers, zig-zags into roller coasters, spirals into galaxies).
    • Ask students to name their collaborative artwork.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Turn your classroom into a gallery!
    • Lay artworks on desks or hang them around the room.
    • Have students walk through the gallery, viewing each other’s bot collaborations.
  • Facilitate a discussion around the following reflection questions:
    • What made your art bot move in a fun or interesting way?
    • What was one thing you changed or improved?
    • What did your art bot draw that surprised you?
    • Have students complete a written or oral reflection of how they

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Teachers will assess student learning through:
    • Observation of student engagement and participation.
    • Questioning during discussions to check understanding.
    • Peer discussions about design choices.

Summative

  • Art bot demonstration: Each student will showcase their bot and explain how design choices impacted movement answering the following questions.
    • How did unbalanced forces affect your bot’s motion?
    • What design change improved your bot the most?

Reflection: Students’ will complete a written or oral discussion of how they followed the engineering design process and what they would do differently next time.

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Ask students to modify their bot to create a specific pattern or shape.
  • Introduce Scratch: Students can create digital “bot” animations or stories reflecting the movement of their physical bots.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide pre-wired circuits to simplify the process.
  • Provide extended time for building and reflecting.
  • Offer verbal instructions paired with written guides.
  • Allow for alternative methods of documentation (photos, audio).

 

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Shannon Green

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

Back to Lessons

ART BOTS GA FOUNDATIONAL 2-3

ART BOTS

ART BOTS

Learning Description

In this hands-on STEAM lesson, students will explore the relationship between electricity, motion, and unbalanced forces by designing and building their own wobbling art bots. Using hobby motors, battery packs, pool noodles, and markers, students will follow the engineering design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve) to construct a bot that moves and draws in unpredictable patterns.

Through experimentation, students will discover how unbalanced forces affect motion, how simple circuits power their bots, and how small design changes can alter their bot’s movements and direction. They will analyze their bots' performance, make modifications, and reflect on their design choices. By combining science, engineering, and art, this lesson fosters creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking while reinforcing foundational physical science concepts.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2-3
CONTENT FOCUS: STEAM
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can build a simple circuit to power a motor.
  • I can explain how unbalanced forces affect motion.
  • I can use the engineering design process to create and improve my Art Bot.
  • I can analyze how design choices impact the movement and artwork created by my bot.

Essential Questions

  • How do unbalanced forces affect the speed or direction of an object?
  • How do a motor and battery work together to power movement?
  • How can I use the engineering design process to improve my Art Bot?
  • What design choices influence how my bot moves and draws?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

S2P2.b Design a device to change the speed or direction of an object.

S2P2.c Record and analyze data to decide if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a force (a push or a pull).

Arts Standards

VA2.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA2.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause-and-effect relationships of electric interactions and magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Anchor Standard 7: I can relate visual arts ideas to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Circuit – A complete path through which electricity flows
  • Motor – A device that converts electrical energy into movement
  • Unbalanced force – A force that causes an object to start moving, stop moving, or change direction
  • Vibration – A rapid back-and-forth motion that can create movement

Arts Vocabulary

  • Line – A continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional (wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form) often it is an outline, contour or silhouette.
  • Shape – A flat, enclosed line that is always two-dimensional and can be either geometric or organic
  • Pattern – Repetition of specific visual elements such as a unit of shape or form
  • Texture (visual) – The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Composition – How an artist arranges the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, value, color, space, texture) to create an artwork
  • Collaboration – Working together to create something new
  • Abstract art – Art that does not try to represent real life realistically; often made with shapes, colors, and lines

 

Materials

  • Hobby motors
  • Battery packs (with AA batteries)
  • Pool noodles (cut into smaller sections) or plastic cups
  • Thin markers
  • Tape (masking or electrical)
  • Small weights (paperclips, washers, etc.)
  • Scissors
  • Googly eyes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Foam shapes
  • Image of the Engineering Design Process

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Engage:
    • Hook: Show a short video of a scribble bot or demonstrate an Art Bot in action.
    • Discussion–Ask students:
      • What do you notice about how it moves?
      • What might be making it move this way?
      • How could we create something similar?

Work Session

  • Introduce the Engineering Design Process and explain that students will follow these steps to create their own Art Bots.
  • Have students choose or assign a partner to create their bots and artwork.

 

Explore – Building the Art Bots

  • Ask: What materials and design choices will help us create a wobbling art bot?
  • Imagine: Have students brainstorm ideas for how to make an art bot using the provided materials.
  • Plan: Students sketch their design and label the parts and materials they will use.
  • Create: Show students how to create their bots.
    • Attach a motor to a small battery pack.
    • Insert the motor into the center of a pool noodle piece or attach to the top of the plastic cup.
    • Tape thin markers as "legs" to hold the bot upright.
    • Add weights to one side of the motor shaft to create an unbalanced motion.
  • Have students place their bot on plain white paper. Turn on the motor and test the movement.

 

Explain – Connecting to Science Concepts

  • Discuss how the unbalanced forces created by the off-center motor make the bot wobble.
  • Relate the motion to concepts like vibration, force, direction, and circuits.
  • Ask students to describe what happened when they turned their bot on.

 

 Improving the Design

  • Improve: Students analyze their bot’s movement and adjust its design to change the direction of the bot and the artwork produced.
  • Encourage experimentation:
    • Change marker placement for different drawing effects.
    • Add or remove weights to alter movement and direction.
    • Adjust motor positioning to control wobbling direction.
  • Ask your students to think of their art bot as an artistic partner! Ask students what they could add to this artwork to bring it to life. Could they turn the bot's movements into something meaningful or funny or beautiful?
    • Students will add their own hand-drawn designs, shapes, and/or details to enhance the bot’s scribbles.
    • Students will use crayons, colored pencils, or markers to transform the bot’s random motion drawings into imaginative creations (e.g., turning loops into flowers, zig-zags into roller coasters, spirals into galaxies).
    • Ask students to name their collaborative artwork.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Turn your classroom into a gallery!
    • Lay artworks on desks or hang them around the room.
    • Have students walk through the gallery, viewing each other’s bot collaborations.
  • Facilitate a discussion around the following reflection questions:
    • What made your art bot move in a fun or interesting way?
    • How did changing the weight change the direction and movement of the bot?
    • What was one thing you changed or improved? What was the result?
    • What did your art bot draw that surprised you?

Have students reflect on how they followed the engineering design process and what they would do differently next time.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Teachers will assess student learning through:
    • Observation of student engagement and participation.
    • Questioning during discussions to check understanding.
    • Peer discussions about design choices.

Summative

  • Art bot demonstration: Each student will showcase their bot and explain how design choices impacted movement answering the following questions.
    • How did unbalanced forces affect your bot’s motion?
    • What design change improved your bot the most?
    • How did changing the weight change the direction and movement of the bot?

Reflection: Students’ reflection on how they followed the engineering design process and what they would do differently next time.

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Ask students to modify their bot to create a specific pattern or shape.
  • Introduce Scratch: Students can create digital “bot” animations or stories reflecting the movement of their physical bots.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide pre-wired circuits to simplify the process.
  • Provide extended time for building and reflecting.
  • Offer verbal instructions paired with written guides.
  • Allow for alternative methods of documentation (photos, audio).

 

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Shannon Green

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

Back to Lessons

ART BOTS SC FOUNDATIONAL 4-5

ART BOTS

ART BOTS

Learning Description

In this integrated STEAM lesson, students explore motion and energy by designing and building simple “Art Bots” using battery packs, hobby motors, pool noodles, and markers. As they construct their bots, students observe how an electric circuit powers movement and how unbalanced design causes wobbling motion that produces abstract art.

After building and testing their robots, students will personify their bot in a creative writing prompt: “What do you think your Art Bot would say if it could talk?”.

They will write a narrative describing their bot’s personality, drawing style, and movement patterns. This encourages the use of descriptive language while reinforcing the science concepts of energy and motion. Students conclude with a gallery walk, where they display their robot-generated artwork.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS: STEAM & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can build a simple circuit to power a motor.
  • I can explain how unbalanced forces affect motion.
  • I can use the engineering design process to create and improve my Art Bot.
  • I can analyze how design choices impact the movement and artwork created by my bot.
  • I can create a character for my Art Bot.
  • I can write a fictional narrative inspired by my Art Bot.

Essential Questions

  • How do unbalanced forces affect motion?
  • How do a motor and battery work together to power movement?
  • How can I use the engineering design process to improve my Art Bot?
  • What design choices influence how my bot moves and draws?
  • How can creating an Art Bot character inspire narrative writing?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

SCIENCE

Grade 4:

S4P3: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the relationship between balanced and unbalanced forces and the motion of an object.

Grade 5:

S5P3: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about magnetism and electric circuits.

ELA

Grade 4:

4.T.T.1.e Apply narrative techniques (e.g., character, setting, problem, resolution, and dialogue) to develop a real or imagined experience using descriptive details, clear event sequences, and a conclusion.

Grade 5:

5.T.T.1.e Apply narrative techniques (e.g., character, setting, conflict, climax, resolution, and dialogue) to develop a real or imagined experience using descriptive details, clear event sequences, and a conclusion.

Arts Standards

VA.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

SCIENCE

Grade 4:

4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

ELA

Grade 4: ELA.C.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences using effective techniques.

ELA.4.C.3.1 Write narratives developing real or imagined experiences. When writing: a. establish a situation and setting; b. introduce a narrator and/or characters; c. organize a plot structure; d. use narrative techniques such as dialogue, descriptive language, and sensory details to develop events, setting, and characters; e. use a variety of transitional words and phrases to sequence events; and f. provide an ending that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Anchor Standard 7: I can relate visual arts ideas to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Circuit – A complete path through which electricity flows
  • Motor – A device that converts electrical energy into movement
  • Unbalanced force – A force that causes an object to start moving, stop moving, or change direction
  • Vibration – A rapid back-and-forth motion that can create movement

Arts Vocabulary

  • Line – A continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional (wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form) often it is an outline, contour or silhouette.
  • Shape – A flat, enclosed line that is always two-dimensional and can be either geometric or organic
  • Pattern – Repetition of specific visual elements such as a unit of shape or form
  • Texture (visual) – The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Composition – How an artist arranges the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, value, color, space, texture) to create an artwork
  • Collaboration – Working together to create something new
  • Abstract art – Art that does not try to represent real life realistically; often made with shapes, colors, and lines

 

Materials

  • Hobby motors
  • Battery packs (with AA batteries)
  • Pool noodles (cut into smaller sections)
  • Thin markers
  • Tape (masking or electrical)
  • Small weights (paperclips, washers, etc.)
  • Scissors
  • Googly eyes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Foam shapes

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Engage:
    • Hook: Show a short video of a scribble bot or demonstrate an Art Bot in action.
    • Discussion–Ask students:
      • What do you notice about how it moves?
      • What might be making it move this way?
      • How could we create something similar?

Work Session

Explore – Building the Art Bots

  • Ask: What materials and design choices will help us create a wobbling Art Bot?
  • Imagine: Have students brainstorm ideas for how to make an artbot using the provided materials.
  • Plan: Students sketch their design and label the parts and materials they will use.
  • Create: Show students how to create their bots.
    • Attach a motor to a small battery pack.
    • Insert the motor into the center of a pool noodle piece.
    • Tape thin markers as "legs" to hold the bot upright.
    • Add weights to one side of the motor shaft to create an unbalanced motion.
  • Have students place their bot on plain white paper. Turn on the motor and test the movement.

Explain – Connecting to Science Concepts

  • Discuss how the unbalanced forces created by the off-center motor make the bot wobble.
  • Relate the motion to concepts like vibration, force, and circuits.
  • Ask students to describe what happened when they turned their bot on.

Improving the Design

  • Improve: Students analyze their bot’s movement and adjust its design to change the motion or artwork produced.
  • Encourage experimentation:
    • Change marker placement for different drawing effects.
    • Add or remove weights to alter movement.
    • Adjust motor positioning to control wobbling direction.
  • Ask your students to think of their Art Bot as an artistic partner! Ask students what they could add to this artwork to bring it to life. Could they turn the bot's movements into something meaningful or funny or beautiful?
    • Students will use crayons, colored pencils, or markers to transform the bot’s random motion drawings into imaginative creations (e.g., turning loops into flowers, zig-zags into roller coasters, spirals into galaxies).
  • Ask students to name their collaborative artwork.
  • Have students respond to the following writing prompt: What do you think your Art Bot would say if it could talk? Describe its personality, how it moves, and what kind of art it creates. Be creative and use descriptive details.
    • Encourage students to:
      • Give their bot a name and voice.
      • Use descriptive language to explain the movement (e.g., wiggle, spin, shake).
      • Describe the bot’s drawing style (e.g., messy, circular, zigzaggy).

Have students write a fictional narrative in which the art bot is the main character. Students’ writing should have a setting, plot structure, characters, descriptive words and phrases, and a clear ending.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Turn your classroom into a gallery!
    • Lay artworks on desks or hang them around the room.
    • Have students walk through the gallery, viewing each other’s bot collaborations.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Teachers will assess student learning through:
    • Observation of student engagement and participation.
    • Questioning during discussions to check understanding.
    • Peer discussions about design choices.

Summative

  • Art Bot demonstration: Each student will showcase their bot and explain how design choices impacted movement answering the following questions.
    • How did unbalanced forces affect your bot’s motion?
    • What design change improved your bot the most?
  • Students’ written response to the prompt and students’ narratives.
  • Reflection: Students’ will complete a written or oral discussion of how they followed the engineering design process and what they would do differently next time.

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Ask students to modify their bot to create a specific pattern or shape.
  • Challenge students to:
    • Write a first-person narrative from the Art Bot’s point of view.
    • Use figurative language (similes/metaphors).
    • Add a conflict or challenge: e.g., “My markers ran out of ink in the middle of my masterpiece!”.
    • Create a dialogue between their Art Bot and another Bot.
  • Introduce Scratch: Students can create digital “bot” animations or stories reflecting the movement of their physical bots.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide pre-wired circuits to simplify the process.
  • Provide extended time for building and reflecting.
  • Offer verbal instructions paired with written guides.
  • Allow for alternative methods of documentation (photos, audio).
  • Provide a sentence starter template: “My Art Bot’s name is ____. It moves like a ____. It draws with ____. If it could talk, it would say, ‘’”
  • Use a word bank with words like: Spin, shake, draw, color, happy, silly, messy, fast, slow
  • Allow oral storytelling
  • Use a partner storytelling activity where students build the story with peer support.

 

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Shannon Green

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

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ART BOTS SC FOUNDATIONAL 2-3

ART BOTS

ART BOTS

Learning Description

In this integrated STEAM lesson, students explore motion and energy by designing and building simple “Art Bots” using battery packs, hobby motors, pool noodles, and markers. As they construct their bots, students observe how an electric circuit powers movement and how unbalanced design causes wobbling motion that produces abstract art.

After building and testing their robots, students will personify their bot in a creative writing prompt: “What do you think your Art Bot would say if it could talk?”.

They will write a narrative describing their bot’s personality, drawing style, and movement patterns. This encourages the use of descriptive language while reinforcing the science concepts of energy and motion. Students conclude with a gallery walk, where they display their robot-generated artwork.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2-3
CONTENT FOCUS: STEAM & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can build a simple circuit to power a motor.
  • I can explain how unbalanced forces affect motion.
  • I can use the engineering design process to create and improve my Art Bot.
  • I can analyze how design choices impact the movement and artwork created by my bot.
  • I can create a character for my Art Bot.
  • I can write a fictional narrative inspired by my Art Bot.

Essential Questions

  • How do unbalanced forces affect motion?
  • How do a motor and battery work together to power movement?
  • How can I use the engineering design process to improve my Art Bot?
  • What design choices influence how my bot moves and draws?
  • How can creating an Art Bot character inspire narrative writing?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Science

Grade 2:

S2P2.b Design a device to change the speed or direction of an object.

S2P2.c Record and analyze data to decide if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a force (a push or a pull).

ELA

3.T.T.1.e Apply narrative techniques (e.g., character, setting, problem, resolution, dialogue) to develop a real or imagined experience using descriptive details, clear event sequences, and a sense of closure.

Arts Standards

VA.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Science

3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause-and-effect relationships of electric interactions and magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

ELA

ELA.C.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences using effective techniques.

ELA.3.C.3.1 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences. When writing: a. establish a setting and introduce a narrator or characters; b. use temporal words and phrases to sequence a plot structure; c. use descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop characters; and d. provide an ending.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Anchor Standard 7: I can relate visual arts ideas to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Circuit – A complete path through which electricity flows
  • Motor – A device that converts electrical energy into movement
  • Unbalanced force – A force that causes an object to start moving, stop moving, or change direction
  • Vibration – A rapid back-and-forth motion that can create movement

Arts Vocabulary

  • Line – A continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional (wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form) often it is an outline, contour or silhouette.
  • Shape – A flat, enclosed line that is always two-dimensional and can be either geometric or organic
  • Pattern – Repetition of specific visual elements such as a unit of shape or form
  • Texture (visual) – The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Composition – How an artist arranges the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, value, color, space, texture) to create an artwork
  • Collaboration – Working together to create something new
  • Abstract art – Art that does not try to represent real life realistically; often made with shapes, colors, and lines

 

Materials

  • Hobby motors
  • Battery packs (with AA batteries)
  • Pool noodles (cut into smaller sections)
  • Thin markers
  • Tape (masking or electrical)
  • Small weights (paperclips, washers, etc.)
  • Scissors
  • Googly eyes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Foam shapes

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Engage:
    • Hook: Show a short video of a scribble bot or demonstrate an Art Bot in action.
    • Discussion–Ask students:
      • What do you notice about how it moves?
      • What might be making it move this way?
      • How could we create something similar?

Work Session

Explore – Building the Art Bots

  • Ask: What materials and design choices will help us create a wobbling Art Bot?
  • Imagine: Have students brainstorm ideas for how to make an artbot using the provided materials.
  • Plan: Students sketch their design and label the parts and materials they will use.
  • Create: Show students how to create their bots.
    • Attach a motor to a small battery pack.
    • Insert the motor into the center of a pool noodle piece.
    • Tape thin markers as "legs" to hold the bot upright.
    • Add weights to one side of the motor shaft to create an unbalanced motion.
  • Have students place their bot on plain white paper. Turn on the motor and test the movement.

Explain – Connecting to Science Concepts

  • Discuss how the unbalanced forces created by the off-center motor make the bot wobble.
  • Relate the motion to concepts like vibration, force, and circuits.
  • Ask students to describe what happened when they turned their bot on.

Improving the Design

  • Improve: Students analyze their bot’s movement and adjust its design to change the motion or artwork produced.
  • Encourage experimentation:
    • Change marker placement for different drawing effects.
    • Add or remove weights to alter movement.
    • Adjust motor positioning to control wobbling direction.
  • Ask your students to think of their Art Bot as an artistic partner! Ask students what they could add to this artwork to bring it to life. Could they turn the bot's movements into something meaningful or funny or beautiful?
    • Students will use crayons, colored pencils, or markers to transform the bot’s random motion drawings into imaginative creations (e.g., turning loops into flowers, zig-zags into roller coasters, spirals into galaxies).
  • Ask students to name their collaborative artwork.
  • Have students respond to the following writing prompt: What do you think your Art Bot would say if it could talk? Describe its personality, how it moves, and what kind of art it creates. Be creative and use descriptive details.
    • Encourage students to:
      • Give their bot a name and voice.
      • Use descriptive language to explain the movement (e.g., wiggle, spin, shake).
      • Describe the bot’s drawing style (e.g., messy, circular, zigzaggy).

Have students write a fictional narrative in which the art bot is the main character. Students’ writing should have a setting, plot structure, characters, descriptive words and phrases, and a clear ending.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Turn your classroom into a gallery!
    • Lay artworks on desks or hang them around the room.
    • Have students walk through the gallery, viewing each other’s bot collaborations.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Teachers will assess student learning through:
    • Observation of student engagement and participation.
    • Questioning during discussions to check understanding.
    • Peer discussions about design choices.

Summative

  • Art Bot demonstration: Each student will showcase their bot and explain how design choices impacted movement answering the following questions.
    • How did unbalanced forces affect your bot’s motion?
    • What design change improved your bot the most?
  • Students’ written response to the prompt and students’ narratives.
  • Reflection: Students’ will complete a written or oral discussion of how they followed the engineering design process and what they would do differently next time.

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Ask students to modify their bot to create a specific pattern or shape.
  • Challenge students to:
    • Write a first-person narrative from the Art Bot’s point of view.
    • Use figurative language (similes/metaphors).
    • Add a conflict or challenge: e.g., “My markers ran out of ink in the middle of my masterpiece!”.
    • Create a dialogue between their Art Bot and another Bot.
  • Introduce Scratch: Students can create digital “bot” animations or stories reflecting the movement of their physical bots.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide pre-wired circuits to simplify the process.
  • Provide extended time for building and reflecting.
  • Offer verbal instructions paired with written guides.
  • Allow for alternative methods of documentation (photos, audio).
  • Provide a sentence starter template: “My Art Bot’s name is ____. It moves like a ____. It draws with ____. If it could talk, it would say, ‘’”
  • Use a word bank with words like: Spin, shake, draw, color, happy, silly, messy, fast, slow
  • Allow oral storytelling
  • Use a partner storytelling activity where students build the story with peer support.

 

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Shannon Green

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

Back to Lessons