Zoey Graf

Creating art through different lenses, including science and Indigenous knowledge, offers a powerful way to notice and respond to the natural world.

In this lesson, sixth-grade students make mixed-media landscapes to explore art concepts, scientific knowledge, and Indigenous botany in meaningful ways. The interdisciplinary approach deepens their understanding of environmental sciences, broadens their appreciation for diverse perspectives, and strengthens their creative and technical skills.

Playing with foreground, middle ground, and background layers, students explore art concepts such as mark-making, celestial phenomena, and local geography and plant species. Using soft pastels, oil pastels, ink pens, paint, and found objects, they create layered landscapes that balance guided art-making with student agency.

These landscapes are more than physical representations—they hold stories, traditional knowledge, and reflections on how nature and humanity might coexist. Universal questions about sustainability, combined with scientific study and mixed-media art, encourage holistic exploration and a deeper respect for the planet.

Discussing Landscapes
Begin by reviewing the basic elements of a landscape. Students might observe that the sky and mountains appear in the background, rivers and hills in the middle ground, and detailed plants or animals in the foreground. Explore how artists show space in their artworks. Perspective, color, and scale might surface.

These landscapes are more than physical representations—they hold stories, traditional knowledge, and reflections on how nature and humanity might coexist.

Scientific Exploration
Take time to help students see connections between art and science. They can draw upon existing knowledge from sixth-grade science. Photographs of nearby landscapes can remind students about local geography, and handbooks can introduce students to familiar and new botany. Depending on the context, conversations, activities, and mini-lessons about climate, weather patterns, sky observation, leaf structure, and geology might be worthwhile.

Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Devote both professional and personal effort to learning about the historical and contemporary context of Indigenous peoples in your area. Who traditionally lived on and cared for the local land? What stories, traditions, and values are locally important?

Inviting Elders and Knowledge Keepers to share traditional knowledge is a deeply worthwhile endeavor. Other ways to authentically learn about Indigenous ways of knowing might include exploring Indigenous terms for plants, landforms, and culturally significant places. Some Indigenous nations also produce digital resources for authentic learning experiences.

Gathering Materials
A mixed-media project involves using various materials to create different textures, colors, and effects. We used:

• shallow cardboard gift boxes
• paper or canvas for each layer
• paints, pastels, pencil crayons, etc.
• fine liners
• natural objects like twigs and pebbles
• glue

1. Make the sky: Demonstrate techniques, show examples, and/or scaffold the creation of colorful or nighttime skies. Make connections to weather, sky observation, Indigenous stories, and other areas. Give students time to experiment with media before creating the first layer—the sky—in the cardboard box. (We have made wet-on-wet watercolor skies, blended oil pastel sunsets, a soft pastel aurora borealis, and acrylic-painted celestial skies.)
2. Make the mountains: Inspired by ink drawings, students use black media on white paper to create hills, mountains, and details, then cut them out and layer them over the sky.
3. Make the foreground: Using paint, pastels, pencil crayons, or other media, students add rivers, trees, and other elements to build the foreground. Encourage continued layering to build up the landscape.
4. Add finishing details like stones, twigs, or other items to the box. Secure the layers, then cover the finished box with a translucent film to protect the work inside.

Reflection and Sharing
Once the landscapes are completed, set aside time for students to reflect on their work and share their process with the class and community. Ask how their landscape reflects scientific concepts, how it incorporates knowledge of the land and Indigenous ways of knowing, and how art can help convey the beauty and importance of nature.

This project is an educational exploration that blends art, science, and Indigenous knowledge. It not only fosters students’ creativity and connection-making, but also enhances understanding of the world around them and the deep connections between the land, the people who live on it, and the ecosystems that sustain life.

Zoey Graf is a visual arts specialist at Calgary Girls Charter School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. zoey.graf@mycgcs.ca

Layered Landscapes: An Interdisciplinary Exploration