The Herpetology Hop 2023
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I educated them on the genre of installation art. This included interactive installation, along with a look at the history and contemporary artists. |
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As part of our exploration of Interactive Installation Art, we did a field trip to the WNDR Museum!!!
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We looked at our venue, The Festival of Science & Engineering, and picked a subject to make art about: Herpetology (The scientific study of reptiles & amphibians)
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We all learned the basics of herpetology through a lesson called Herpetology 101. |
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We each picked a specific focus of study within herpetology. A dove into our studies. Students did a write up, along with illustrations.
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Students each proposed ideas for the murals, the soundtrack and all the interactions of our installation.
General Description
This interactive installation will be based on herpetology, the scientific study of reptiles & amphibians. It will be built by my students at Patrick Henry High. It will be exhibited at the Festival of Science & Engineering 3/4/23 and Family Day at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art 3/12/23.
The Workshop
The workshop will be open and accessible from the front as well as a side door from the interactive installation area. It will host a series of informative murals, a table and chairs. Kids will be informed that they are herpetologists and on a mission to find a series of reptiles and amphibians, and answer 3 questions. They will be given a checklist and sent into the art installation to search. There will be an easy one for kids 5-7 & and harder one for kids 8-12.
A second possible project will ask them to release reptiles and amphibians into the wild. For this, they will color & cut out a pacific tree frog or a blue belly lizard, then bring it into the installation area to tape it onto the tree.
Most importantly, the floor will be composed of rocks painted on upside down carpet. Each stone will be about a foot apart and questions will be painted on each rock. The answers will be all around them on the walls. They hop from stone to stone answering the questions...The Herpetology Hop!
The Front Painting
Will be a 10’ x 10’ painting/mural showing several ecosystems with an artistic celebration of reptiles & amphibians inset. A reticulated python will be striking, and its open mouth will be the front door. This will lead into the interactive installation.
The interactive art installation
The interactive art installation area will host a series of murals with brief explanations on the subjects of:
Types of Reptiles & Types of Amphibians
Size variations (biggest & smallest)
Metamorphosis of amphibians Gliding (not flying)
Croc vs alligators + Toad vs frogs + Salamanders vs newts vs lizards
Indigenous to San Diego vs Invasive species to San Diego
Venomous species around the world
Systems of Anatomy: Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Nervous system, Reproduction
Symbols of various cultures Evolution -dinosaurs to now
Camouflage/Chameleons changing color/Mimicry
How do snakes move? Shedding
The strange senses of reptiles + Some lizards have a secret 3rd eye
Cold blood vs warm blooded Forms of extreme hibernation
These informative murals will host the answers to the questions that the kids will be seeking as acting herpetologists.
Most importantly, the floor will be composed of rocks painted on upside down carpet. Each stone will be about a foot apart and questions will be painted on each rock. The answers will be all around them on the walls. They hop from stone to stone answering the questions...The Herpetology Hop!
A central paper Mache’ sculpture of a tree will be a great place for kids to tape on their pacific tree frogs or bluebelly lizards.
The two back corners will each host a glass cube with taxidermy reptiles & amphibians from the Natural History Museum. These will be on small tables.
A magnet game will be a fun educational activity to teach taxonomy.
Flying (gliding) reptiles & amphibians will be sculpted and hanging around the ceiling with some vines.
We will hide a fog machine for a little extra atmosphere.
The soundtrack will be a cacophony of frog songs, mixed with other hisses & rattles. It will come in waves of sound.
A backdoor will be the exit into the Workshop area.
We drew out our plan:
This interactive installation will be based on herpetology, the scientific study of reptiles & amphibians. It will be built by my students at Patrick Henry High. It will be exhibited at the Festival of Science & Engineering 3/4/23 and Family Day at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art 3/12/23.
The Workshop
The workshop will be open and accessible from the front as well as a side door from the interactive installation area. It will host a series of informative murals, a table and chairs. Kids will be informed that they are herpetologists and on a mission to find a series of reptiles and amphibians, and answer 3 questions. They will be given a checklist and sent into the art installation to search. There will be an easy one for kids 5-7 & and harder one for kids 8-12.
A second possible project will ask them to release reptiles and amphibians into the wild. For this, they will color & cut out a pacific tree frog or a blue belly lizard, then bring it into the installation area to tape it onto the tree.
Most importantly, the floor will be composed of rocks painted on upside down carpet. Each stone will be about a foot apart and questions will be painted on each rock. The answers will be all around them on the walls. They hop from stone to stone answering the questions...The Herpetology Hop!
The Front Painting
Will be a 10’ x 10’ painting/mural showing several ecosystems with an artistic celebration of reptiles & amphibians inset. A reticulated python will be striking, and its open mouth will be the front door. This will lead into the interactive installation.
The interactive art installation
The interactive art installation area will host a series of murals with brief explanations on the subjects of:
Types of Reptiles & Types of Amphibians
Size variations (biggest & smallest)
Metamorphosis of amphibians Gliding (not flying)
Croc vs alligators + Toad vs frogs + Salamanders vs newts vs lizards
Indigenous to San Diego vs Invasive species to San Diego
Venomous species around the world
Systems of Anatomy: Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Nervous system, Reproduction
Symbols of various cultures Evolution -dinosaurs to now
Camouflage/Chameleons changing color/Mimicry
How do snakes move? Shedding
The strange senses of reptiles + Some lizards have a secret 3rd eye
Cold blood vs warm blooded Forms of extreme hibernation
These informative murals will host the answers to the questions that the kids will be seeking as acting herpetologists.
Most importantly, the floor will be composed of rocks painted on upside down carpet. Each stone will be about a foot apart and questions will be painted on each rock. The answers will be all around them on the walls. They hop from stone to stone answering the questions...The Herpetology Hop!
A central paper Mache’ sculpture of a tree will be a great place for kids to tape on their pacific tree frogs or bluebelly lizards.
The two back corners will each host a glass cube with taxidermy reptiles & amphibians from the Natural History Museum. These will be on small tables.
A magnet game will be a fun educational activity to teach taxonomy.
Flying (gliding) reptiles & amphibians will be sculpted and hanging around the ceiling with some vines.
We will hide a fog machine for a little extra atmosphere.
The soundtrack will be a cacophony of frog songs, mixed with other hisses & rattles. It will come in waves of sound.
A backdoor will be the exit into the Workshop area.
We drew out our plan:
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It was time to start painting! Each wall had a theme. Some students painted the theme names large & fancy. Once the themes were up, we all added our illustrations along with short summaries of our research.
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As a floor, we painted on old carpet that we turned upside down. We painted rocks that kids would jump from rock to rock. Each rock had a question & answer about reptiles…get it? The Herpetology Hop!
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We also used paper Mache to sculpt a dead tree. Chris Schaie at A Reason To Survive (ARTS) helped us by welding together a metal armature for our tree. They also supplied us with materials to create the dead tree sculpture. The tree sculpture would be placed in the center of our installation.
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The whole room had become a construction site. Multiple projects happening simultaneously as the painting went on!
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In addition, to the tree ARTS helped us by using their laser cutter to cut a set of flying (gliding)frogs, lizards and snakes from wood. Students painted these and they “flew” around the ceiling (hanging from strings).
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The tree sculpture & floor were coming along great!
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We designed a taxonomy game that used magnets. We bought small plastic animals and super glued them to magnets. The game worked perfectly!
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The front of our installation hosted the most iconic reptiles & amphibians, along with a giant snake who’s open mouth was the entrance door!
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We used a symphony of frog songs and rattle snakes as a looping soundtrack. This was created by David Samas a sound artist from San Francisco who supports our classes.
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Inside the installation, we had a fog machine and a set of taxidermized snakes in glass boxes. The gliding reptiles & frogs were tied into the sky...WE WERE READY!
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We contacted The San Diego Herpetology Society. They agreed to join us at festivals with their LIVE ANIMALS!!! They brought live snakes for the public to touch and hold!
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We had a workshop area in which kids were asked to draw reptiles and amphibians onto a large leaf template, then cut it out and tape it onto the tree sculpture. Some of our students got this project started.
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We had a workshop area where kids could color & cut out tree frogs & lizards, then tape them onto the tree sculpture.
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The Festival of Science & Engineering went great. Thousands of people attended!
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We kept this sign out front:
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We were invited to share our Herpetology Hop at a one-day event at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. The event was focused on art about science. We accepted and the event was fantastic!
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