A Multicultural Art Project

Creating and Justifying a Curriculum

TITLE: "Hawaii: A Melting Pot of Many Cultures"

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Students will be asked to focus on Hawaii. Special attention will be given to understanding that Hawaii although an American state serves as a melting pot of many cultures. Students will be encouraged to consider its native Polynesian roots as well as American, Japanese and European influences. As a group project, students will be asked to build a model environment of Hawaii. This will require organization since students will be divided into separate groups which focus on different aspects of Hawaii's environment and culture. As an art project, students will be asked to concentrate on model-building tasks. At the center of the island display the entire class will participate in building a volcano and then, almost magically, watching its lava flow. Collectively, the group will create a mini-version of the main island of Hawaii. (See details below.)

CORE SUBJECTS TO BE INTEGRATED WITHIN THIS LESSON: Art; Science; Health; Music; Agricultural Science; Geography; Environmental Science; and Dance.

MULTICULTURAL COMPONENT OF PROJECT: Any project which helps students to visualize a culture distinctive from their own can produce strong results. Choosing Hawaii as the civilization to be studied allows fifth graders to see how American culture itself is made up of many differe

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ernment or schools actually function. Students should be encouraged to see this final sharing of information as a kind of "info fest" which celebrates and pays tribute to the diversity and dignity of the Hawaiian culture. The "grand finale", after all the students have already situated their models within the community setting will be an actual "letting the lava flow" party. In the center of the village (possibly placed in a sandbox-like plywood structure) a small (but proportional to the village's size) mountain of earth will be built up around a small jar or container. [For the most dramatic effect the container should be slightly larger around the bottom than the top.] The lava will begin to flow when the following mixture is poured into the volcano's crater: 2 Tablespoons baking soda, 2 Tablespoons clear dish soap colored with orange food coloring, 1/4 cup white vinegar. It would be a nice gesture to allow those students whose appeared to have worked the hardest or produced the best results to be the first students to make the volcano "erupt." Plenty of "lava" should be on hand to allow as many students as possible to participate in this magical moment. DETAILS OF PROJECT DISTRIBUTION: In order for Hawaii to be under
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Some common words found in the essay are:
PREPARATION ORGANIZATION, Science JUSTIFICATION, Maoris Malayo-Polynesian, CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES, HAWAIIAN VOCABULARY, Ancient Hawaiians, WORDS UNIT, Japanese European, DISTRIBUTION Hawaii, BUILT Students, art project, students encouraged, melting pot, allow students, hawaiian culture, fifth graders, focus hawaii, pineapple sugar plantations, agricultural science, lava flow, sugar plantations, students encouraged consider, melting pot cultures,
Approximate Word count = 2150
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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