Evolution of a Species Using Arts Integration

Digital Technology

6th Through 8th Grade • Science, Biology & Digital Media

Lesson Overview: This arts-integrated lesson plan combines biology concepts with digital media arts. Designed collaboratively by a classroom teacher and teaching artist, the lesson guides students to model genetic variation, adaptation, and evolution using 3D software to create digital species. The plan incorporates Illinois state science standards with media arts education, allowing students to visualize scientific concepts through creative expression while encouraging them to incorporate their personal identity into their digital creatures. Assessment is performance-based, with students creating presentations and explaining genetic concepts through their artistic work, fostering both scientific understanding and creative skills.

Learning Objectives:

Students Will:

  • Model genetic variation, adaptation, and evolution of a species using digital technology to derive a solution basis for continuation of a given species.

  • Conceptualize anthropomorphic characteristics in digital creatures while developing technical proficiency in 3D software applications.

  • Articulate the connections between their artistic choices and scientific principles during presentations, explaining how their design elements represent specific evolutionary adaptations.

  •  Refer to genetic diversity as it relates to mutation and heredity in relation to coding and data analysis.

 Lesson Process: In this lesson, students will engage in a multi-stage learning process where they first discuss adaptation and evolution concepts during a brief teacher introduction, followed by hands-on exploration of 3D software guided by the teaching artist. Students create digital species that demonstrate genetic variation by incorporating unique characteristics, features, and colors that reflect their own identities while simultaneously representing scientific concepts of adaptation. The classroom teacher reinforces these connections through guided practice where students become familiar with key genetics terminology such as genes, alleles, and DNA reproduction. The culminating project requires students to develop both a PowerPoint presentation explaining the scientific principles behind their digital creature and an artistic representation of their species, demonstrating their understanding of how environmental factors influence genetic adaptation.

Time Required:

  • 50 Minutes

Materials List:

  • 3D software

Assessment : The lesson uses performance-based portfolio assessments, quizzes/tests, demonstrations, and presentations. The lesson includes reliable, valid, and instructionally relevant assessments including screening measures, diagnostic measures, progress monitoring measures, formative measures, and summative (outcome) measures, including program evaluation.

  • Performance-base (40%)

  • Test/Quiz (30%)

  • Presentation (30%)

Lesson
Activities & Instructions

The Activities & Instructions section provides a structured sequence of learning experiences, guiding educators through engaging, interactive lessons.

Lesson Activities

  • Classroom Teacher Activities (5 Minutes)

  • Teaching Artist Activities (10 Minutes)

  • Classroom Teacher Reinforcement Activities (30 Minutes)

  • Teaching Artist Supportive Closing (5 Minutes)

    • Introduce lesson

    • Discuss adaptation & evolution

    • Guide students to explaining how genes dictate evolutionary changes

    • Prepare scaffolded vocabulary resources that bridge scientific terminology with artistic concepts, ensuring students can articulate genetic principles like alleles, DNA replication, and phenotypic expression while working in the 3D software environment.

      • Prior to implementation, the content teacher develops clear assessment rubrics that balance evaluation of scientific accuracy with creative expression, providing specific criteria for how students' digital creatures should demonstrate understanding of adaptation mechanisms while still allowing for artistic freedom.

    • Teaching artist develops a simplified tutorial for the 3D software that focuses specifically on creating and manipulating features that can represent genetic adaptations, ensuring technical challenges don't overshadow the biological concepts students need to demonstrate.

    • When modeling the project, the teaching artist explicitly connects visual design choices to evolutionary principles, perhaps creating a sample digital creature with specific adaptations while verbalizing their design process and scientific reasoning to help students understand how artistic decisions can communicate scientific understanding.

    • Assists students  in demonstrating various modeling techniques to best represent creatures and the process of evolution.

    • Modeling Artwork: Provide an example of the panda bear with a ppt presentation to demonstrate the final product and the expectations of the assignment.

    • Establish clear checkpoints throughout the project where students must articulate the biological mechanisms behind their design choices, ensuring they're not just creating aesthetically pleasing creatures but are deliberately incorporating features that demonstrate understanding of natural selection, genetic variation, and evolutionary adaptation.

    • Design a peer feedback protocol where students examine each other's digital creatures and identify the evolutionary advantages represented, encouraging students to refine their work based on whether others can accurately interpret the scientific concepts they intended to convey through their artistic choices.

NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS

  • Anchor Standard 2
    Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

    Anchor Standard 3
    Refine and complete artistic work.

  • Anchor Standard 11
    Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

Key Themes & Ideas

Arts-Integrated Instruction: A core focus is on integrating arts into the curriculum to enhance learning and address the needs of all students. This involves recognizing the impact of arts on students' "vision, voices, mental health, and wellbeing" and fostering a multidimensional awareness about arts-integrated classrooms.

Collaborative Lesson Planning and Student Engagement: The lesson emphasizes the importance of collaborative lesson planning with clear goals and measurable learning components, prioritizing student engagement. The Teacher and Teaching Artist:

  • Define clear goals and measurable learning components.

  • Include student engagement.

  • Develop teaching techniques that foster student participation and engagement.

  • Identify teachers’ and teaching artists’ roles in developing arts- integrated teaching units.

  • Demonstrate multi-dimensional awareness about arts- integrated classrooms. 

  • Recognize the importance of an arts curriculum and its impact on students. 

  • Amplify the 'student voice' and stories of excellence.

  • Examine the process of arts integration across disciplines.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): The lesson highlights the importance of the MTSS framework to meet academic and behavioral needs of all learners. This includes early intervention, data-driven decision making, and differentiated instruction.

  • The MTSS framework is designed to meet the academic and behavioral needs of ALL learners.

  • It is best to intervene early.

  • Actively engaged administrative leadership for data-based decision making is essential.

  • Core instruction should be differentiated to meet individual learning needs.

Data-Driven Decision Making & Assessment: The lesson  emphasizes using data from various types of assessments to inform instruction and identify students who need extra support.

  • Data should be used to guide meaningful decision making. Reliable, valid, and instructionally relevant assessments should include screening measures, diagnostic measures, progress monitoring measures, formative measures, and summative (outcome) measures, including program evaluation.

  • All students should be administered universal screenings during the school year to determine achievement toward expectations.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The document integrates UDL principles to create inclusive learning environments for all students, including those with disabilities. This emphasizes creating flexible designs that accommodate a wide range of abilities and preferences.

  • Universal Design for Learning recognizes the different needs that are unique to those with visual, hearing, motor, or learning/cognitive disabilities while also designing for able- bodied users as well.

Success Criteria:

  • Students are a part of the problem-solving process and educational decision making.

  • All learners are supported regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

  • Arts learning strategies energize and mobilize students in community and share effective practices.

  • Collaborative teaching creates spaces for student  expression, open dialogue, and active listening.

Overall Significance

This lesson plan exemplifies the potential of arts integration to transform science education by making complex evolutionary concepts accessible through creative digital expression. By connecting personal identity with scientific principles, the lesson creates deeper emotional investment in learning, potentially increasing retention of difficult concepts while simultaneously developing both technical and artistic skills that have real-world applications. The collaborative structure between classroom teacher and teaching artist models the interdisciplinary thinking increasingly valued in both professional and academic settings, preparing students for futures where cross-domain problem-solving is essential. This approach aligns perfectly with Universal Design for Learning principles by offering multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression—ensuring all students, regardless of learning differences, can meaningfully access the curriculum. Beyond the immediate content goals, this lesson represents a pedagogical framework that honors student identity, fosters creative problem-solving, and reimagines science education as both personally relevant and responsive.

– REACH –

Thank you to our Educators, Artists, and Collaborators.

School: Art In Motion

Teacher: Connie McArthur

Teaching Artist: K. Matthew Wilson

Arts Organization: American Academy of Art

  • Resource 1: link