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Do IT this week: Layering
Miller South students use recycled materials to create unusual 'green' space
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, May 29, 2009
Bonnie Wachter's pupils didn't need soil to create a garden, or sunlight or seeds or any of the usual requirements.
All they needed was a fertile imagination and some old junk.
Wachter's sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Akron's Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts have turned a storage room into a whimsical garden made from recycled materials. The plants and birds and fish are all inanimate, yet they represent a sort of rebirth — art objects made from what otherwise might have ended up in a landfill.
The ''green garden'' is the latest in an annual series of art projects Wachter oversees, each year with a different theme. Last year it was Voices, a project that focused on people the pupils admire and included likenesses of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The previous year's theme, Got Art?, had the pupils re-creating works by their chosen artists.
The kids brainstorm ideas, research and write papers on topics related to the theme and create elements for the installation. In this case, those elements include a waterfall and pond made from a wading pool and sheets of transparent blue plastic, edged by rocks crafted from art paper and stuffed with newspaper; trees crafted from metal and paper; and a blue paper sky with holes cut out to let light from the ceiling fixtures glow through layers of cotton batting.
A menagerie of creatures populates the garden, including a butterfly created from CDs and cable ties, a stuffed snake made from pantyhose and fabric, a Venus fly tray fashioned from metal lids, a bird made from soda cans and a koi whose shimmery plastic-disc scales once covered a purse.
Parent Deb Jesiolowski created the overall design that guided the creative work.
Wachter, a language-arts teacher at the school, said the project helps the young artists develop research skills and deepens their understanding of the topic.
Of course, it also enhances creative thinking.
''That's a Miller-South given,'' she said.
Seventh-grader Samantha Lewis said that when the kids brought in their creations earlier this school year, she was amazed by the imagination of some of her fellow pupils.
''It's real cool to see what people can do out of random things,'' she said.
''Garbage,'' classmate Caitie McNeal added with a laugh.
Fellow seventh-graders Shea Lee and Gavin Markowitz agreed that seeing castoffs as art materials was difficult at first. But that imaginative thinking turned out to be the most fun part of the project, Caitie said.
The garden was created in the fall for the school's community open house and is now used as a quiet place for reading. Beanbag chairs are scattered on the floor, and a soothing soundtrack plays in the background.
The pupils aren't the only beneficiaries. As seventh-grader Leah Struhsaker noted, the project also shows the public that the school cares about the environment.
Miller-South's pupils, it seems, aren't the only ones learning from the assignment.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com.
Bonnie Wachter's pupils didn't need soil to create a garden, or sunlight or seeds or any of the usual requirements.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 08:31 AM, 05/29/2009
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Students...at Miller South... have turned a storage room into a whimsical garden made from recycled materials.
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So where are they 'storing' the items that normally are kept in the 'storage room'?
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
Posted 10:59 AM, 05/29/2009
There are cupboards in the room that are used for storage. The "garden" uses the space surrounding the cupboards. What a great spot!
Posted 02:40 PM, 05/29/2009
It's a great project but overtaxed question was funny.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:07 AM, 05/30/2009
They are so gifted and talented. It is truly inspiring, the way they stack empty milk cartons and garbage bags. It's no wonder you have to know somebody to get your kid in that school.
Posted 02:22 AM, 05/30/2009
Good call, Mall Rat. I wish I could've been the first one to tear down some kids. But, I couldn't get there before you. You win. You're the greatest. I hear next you're going to make fun of handicapped people. Way to live your dream.
