Students will encounter the art and impact of Augusta Savage and the Harlem Renaissance, generate curiosity about how sculptural techniques communicate identity and emotion, and develop a focused, investigable research question with a clear hypothesis to guide their clay bust investigation.

Students will design a systematic investigation plan to test how a specific clay sculpting technique influences the perception of emotion or personality in their Augusta Savage–inspired bust. They will select an appropriate methodology, identify variables, create a detailed data collection protocol, conduct a structured peer review of their design, and revise their plan to ensure high-quality evidence in the next phase.

Students will systematically collect peer feedback data on how specific clay techniques influence perceived emotion and personality in their Augusta Savage–inspired busts, documenting conditions, observations, and anomalies in their Investigation Notebooks to build a strong evidence base for analysis.

Students will transform raw peer critique and observation data from their clay bust investigations into meaningful analysis by creating visualizations, identifying patterns and anomalies, debating interpretations, and drafting evidence-based preliminary findings that connect directly to their research questions about sculptural techniques and emotional expression.

Students will draw evidence-based conclusions about how specific clay techniques influenced emotional expression in their Augusta Savage–inspired busts, explicitly acknowledge limitations, generate new investigable questions, and present their full investigation process and findings during a Sculptural Showcase.