Here’s an activity that works well for integrating many important concepts from the empirical sciences with artistic expression, fine motor skills, and even the spiritual (or non-spiritual) dimensions of various cultural traditions and world views. A full description of this activity, including its broader rationale and teaching suggestions, was published in the Winter 2018 issue of the Canadian, online journal Green Teacher. Since this project, “A Systems Activity about Our Universe”, was one of two ‘free articles’ in that 115th volume of the magazine, you can read the entire text simply by following this link to the Green teacher website. (I would also like to add that I highly recommend Green Teacher and have found its articles, webinars, and archive both informative and helpful.)
Below, are some additional materials related to this Systems project. These include several samples of youngsters’ beautiful finished interpretations of the activity and a horizontally formatted version of the Systems Diagram that you can download for your students to try.
Student Samples:
Here’s the downloadable black and white Systems Diagram:
Edith-Pucci-Couchman-Nested-System-Diagram