Week 8: Density Through Pointillism

This week we are going to look at density in a two-dimensional sense. The idea is to create two dimensional images using various densities of points. The medium and approach can vary for the classroom. Some ideas are:

• Sand art on a stick surface using different densities of sand (try light colored sand and a dark surface or vice-versa)
• Pointillism with pens, pencils or markers to create a peice
  • play with shading and contrast
  • practice drawing shapes and objects first
• Pea gravel on asphalt to create images
• Moving densities with people to create a moving scene or mandala (this takes some choreography)
• Paint with round pencil erasers as the point/dot maker
• Round stickers on a contrasting surface
• For larger grains or objects learners can measure the density of different areas by calculating how many grains/objects are in a given area (ex: grains of sand per square inch)

Students can calculate the density for various areas of their projects and note observations. Classrooms can discuss and play with density functions, look at density maps (ex: population density), look at pointillism art, and/or use apps that change photos into pointillism sketches.