Introductory Information:

Meghan Carlyle
Grade 3, STEAM
Class size: approx. 20 students

One quarter of the year, students in grades K-3 participate in 10 STEAM enrichment classes,
each with the explicit goal of teaching interdisciplinary lessons)

Length of class periods:

Two, 40 minute class periods (see the time breakdown of each day on pg. 9)

In this lesson, students will create a community sculpture using coffee filters and water
soluble makers. Through exploring the properties of water and how it interacts with color,
students will learn about capillary action and color mixing.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:

Science can help us answer questions about art and vice versa, art can help us answer
questions about science, demonstrating how art and science are connected.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

● How can art and science be connected?

● How can we use art to help us understand scientific concepts, such as capillary action?
● How do artists apply scientific knowledge to create art?

STATE STANDARDS ADDRESSED:

Arts Standards: Science Standards:

Cluster 1: Practice 1. 3.LS.1.1

Generate and
conceptualize artistic Use simple graphical representations to show that different types of
ideas and work. organisms have unique and diverse life cycles. Describe that all
organisms have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common but
Through exploration, there are a variety of ways in which these happen. Clarification
students generate a wide Statements: Examples can include different ways plants and animals
variety of innovative ideas begin (e.g., sprout from a seed, born from an egg), grow (e.g., increase
while expanding the in size and weight, produce a new part), reproduce (e.g., develop seeds,
root runners, mate and lay eggs that hatch), and die (e.g., length of life);
 boundaries of connection, Plant life cycles should focus on those of flowering plants; Describing
style, genre, or medium. variation in organism life cycles should focus on comparisons of the
general stages of each, not specifics.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/scitech/2016-04.pdf

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will discuss vocabulary definitions of capillary action, cohesion, and adhesion through
a turn and talk exercise.
Students will describe how they use capillary action in their daily lives.
Students will brainstorm how they can use their understanding of capillary action in their art.
Students will observe how plants such as celery and flowers utilize capillary action to absorb
water.
Students will exhibit effort and follow teacher directions to complete the lesson’s activities.
Students will collaborate with classmates to create a whole-group sculpture.
Students will identify the primary and secondary colors and explain how they are made.
Students will reflect on the essential questions at the end of the lesson.

Criteria 4 3 2 1

The student artist….

Participation in ....participated in ….participated in ….participated in ...did not

discussion all class turn and talk some of the participate in
discussions and with a classmate class class
asked to discuss discussions, but discussions
questions/added capillary action not all
comments to
further
discussion

Work Habits and ….followed ...followed ...followed most ...did not follow
Behavior directions and directions and directions directions
was helpful to completed all
other tasks
classmates
 Color ….was able to ....was able to ….was able to ...was unable to
Identification identify the identify all identify primary identify primary
primary and primary and and secondary and secondary
secondary secondary colors, but colors and how
colors and their colors and how unable to they are made
ingredients and each color is identify how they
applied that made are made
knowledge to
relevant
scientific
concept

Collaboration ...demonstrated ...collaborated ...finished ...did not

leadership when with classmates individual portion collaborate with
collaborating to make whole of group project, classmates to
with classmates class project but did not make whole
on class project collaborate with class project
others

Reflection ...reflected on ...reflected on ...began to ...did not

the lesson and the lesson and reflect on and connect their
connected to ​all identified identify one reflection to the
of the essential connections with essential essential
questions 1-2 essential question question(s) or
question(s) did not complete
a reflection

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT:

● White coffee filters, water soluble markers, pipettes, water, white flowers, food coloring,
mason jars (6), paper towels (white to show color), vase for flowers, white board, dry
erase markers, magnifying glasses, plastic plates to put under the coffee filters, water
bowls for pipettes (or small containers so they don’t use too much), sticky notes, pipe
cleaners, starch spray

VISUAL IMAGE RESOURCES:

Video of “walking water” color changing after Video of flower time lapse
12 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBzN7r-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntRgPl2w 1n4&vl=fr
GdI
 Video of Chihuly https://www.chihuly.com/

TEXT, MEDIA AND WEB RESOURCES:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/capillary-action-lesson-for-kids.html

https://cs.nyu.edu/courses/fall02/V22.0380-001/color_theory.htm

http://www.lovemyscience.com/cat_dictionary.html

https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/colorful-carnations/

https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/chihuly

VOCABULARY WITH DEFINITIONS:

Capillary action:​ a process during which a liquid, like water, moves up something solid, like a
tube or into a material with a lot of small holes. This happens when 3 forces called cohesion,
adhesion, and surface tension work together, so let's look at these forces and how they
cooperate to cause capillary action.

Pipette:​ a dropper

Primary color:​a color that cannot be made from a combination of any other colors.

Secondary color: ​a color created from a combination of two primary colors.

Observation:​ Using your 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, feel) to notice something.

Experiment:​ a test to find something out.

Cohesion:​ When you think of something sticky, you might think of a wad of gum stuck to the
bottom of your shoe. But in science, water is considered sticky, too, even though it doesn't feel
like gum! Just like you hang out with your friends, water molecules, or small particles of water,
stick to other water molecules.

Adhesion:​ when water molecules stick to a solid substance, like a paper towel or the sides of a
hollow tube, and the water is pushed up. Because water molecules stick together, when the first
water molecule sticks to the side of the tube and moves upward, it pulls the next water molecule
up with it and so on, like a chain.

Surface Tension: ​Surface tension refers to water molecules that are more closely bound
together at the surface, making the top of the water more tight and dense than the rest of the
water. Surface tension holds the water together at the top as it moves up during capillary action,
holding the water molecules together like a drawstring.
If you've ever seen an insect that was standing on top of the water in a pond instead of floating
in it, you've seen surface tension in action!

TEACHER INSTRUCTION:

Good morning scientists! Today in STEAM we are going to learn about how science can
help us make incredible art and how art can help us learn about scientific processes.

How many of you have ever watered a plant?

Filled a vase with water for flowers?
Have you ever spilled something? ​And cleaned it up?
Have you ever wondered where that water goes?
What happens when you give a plant some water?
How does a paper towel absorb water?
 We are going to need two hats today, your scientist and your artist hats. To start our
lesson today, we are going to set up an experiment and make some predictions. Can anyone
tell me what an experiment is? (A test to find something out).

Here I have 6 jars with water in them. I’ll be looking for three friends who are sitting
quietly to help me with this next responsibility of adding food coloring to three of these cups.
Can anyone tell me what the primary colors are? (red, yellow, blue). They are called primary
colors because they cannot be made by any other colors.

**call on three students, add food coloring*

Now we are going to make a prediction, or an educated guess about what will happen to
the jars without the food coloring. Why do you think that? I will write your predictions on the
board.

While we wait, I am going to show you another food coloring experiment I tried a few
days ago. This flower was placed in food coloring 3 days ago, this one two days ago, and this
one yesterday. We are going to place one more in food coloring today. Why do you think this
flower is blue? How did this happen? Turn and talk and share your answer with the person
sitting next to you. Put your finger on your nose when you have shared your awesome idea and
are ready to keep going with our lesson.

*ask one or two students to share out*

Now it’s time for you to experiment! At your tables, there is a coffee filter for each of you
and some markers. Please color your coffee filter with a design that you don’t mind messing up.
We will be focusing on our process of art making and less about a finished product.

*Distribute cups with pipettes while they are coloring*

Now it’s time to mess up our artwork! We are going to add water over our colors and see
what happens!

After the students have made observations, have them move stuff to the drying rack and
come back to the rug for final thoughts.

Questions to Pose:
What happened when you put water on the colored spots on your coffee filter?
Why do you think that happened?
How does this connect to the flower experiment I showed you?
What about the paper towel experiment?
 Let’s look back at our predictions from earlier. Were we correct? On the right path?
Today, you explored something called capillary action! Can you say that with me?

Capillary action is a process during which a liquid, like water, moves up something solid,
like a tube or into a material with a lot of small holes. This happens when 3 forces called
cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension work together.

Cohesion:​ When you think of something sticky, you might think of a wad of gum stuck to the
bottom of your shoe. But in science, water is considered sticky, too, even though it doesn't feel
like gum! Just like you hang out with your friends, water molecules, or small particles of water,
stick to other water molecules.

Adhesion:​ when water molecules stick to a solid substance, like a paper towel or the sides of a
hollow tube, and the water is pushed up. Because water molecules stick together, when the first
water molecule sticks to the side of the tube and moves upward, it pulls the next water molecule
up with it and so on, like a chain.

Surface Tension: ​Surface tension refers to water molecules that are more closely bound
together at the surface, making the top of the water more tight and dense than the rest of the
water. Surface tension holds the water together at the top as it moves up during capillary action,
holding the water molecules together like a drawstring.

Plants use capillary action to bring water up from their roots (or stems) to the rest of the
plant in order to keep it healthy. The food coloring in the water allows us to see how the water
travels from the vase, up through the stem, and throughout the plant.

In our paper towel experiment, water travels along the paper towels into the other cups.
When the primary colors combine in the non-food coloring cups, what colors do you think it
might make? (green, orange, purple) Adding two primary colors together makes a secondary
color!

Does anyone have any final thoughts on these experiments? How might we use this new
knowledge about how water can make color travel in the art classroom? (watercolor, alcohol
inks, cleaning up spills!, etc)

Today, creating the coffee filter art helped us see a close up version of capillary action
and how water travels along small pathways and spreads out. We used this to figure out how
the color moved throughout the plants in our experiment. Thank you for learning with me today
about how we can use science and art together!
Final Product:
Time Management Chart Time allotted

Day 1: 40 min

Engage students: put scientist hats on, artist hats on, 10 min
set up color changing experiment, make predictions

Explain and make predictions based on the flower experiment 5 min

Do art activity (model pipette etiquette) 10 min

Come back together and observe color crawling up paper towels 5 min

Watch time lapse videos of walking water and flower experiment. How do 5 min
these activities connect?

Exit ticket: sticky note assessment for (primary/secondary) color 5 min

identification

Day 2: 40 min

Attach pipe cleaners to coffee filters 5 min

Assemble collaborative sculpture 10 min

Gather on rug to discuss terms and incorporate movements 5-10 min

Time to reflect on essential questions independently 10-15 min

Wrap up/share if time (contingent on students finishing reflection) 5 min