Students investigate how chemical reactions can transform plants, soils, and minerals into usable color, then use that evidence to create original stained color works. Over seven weeks, they ask testable questions, run repeated pigment trials, document results in journals and swatch portfolios, and defend claims about which natural resources and reaction methods produce the most stable and effective colors. Through collaboration, critique, and feedback from Ellen Pickens, the Spokane Public Library, and the Museum of Arts and Culture, they connect science, art, and local resources in a public gallery installation. The experience builds content knowledge, communication, and self-direction as students refine both a design process and an artist-scientist identity.

Students will investigate how acids, bases, heat, and water affect pigments from plants, soils, and minerals, and they will design testable questions, run repeated trials, and defend evidence-based claims about color change and stability. They will document and analyze their process through labeled swatches, reaction notes, sketches, and measured color comparisons, then use critique from weekly studio circles, Ellen Pickens, the Museum of Arts and Culture, and the Spokane Public Library to revise their work. Students will collaborate to solve material and design problems, communicate their findings through artist statements and gallery conversations, and connect natural resources to artistic practice in a final pigment portfolio and gallery installation. Through journals and reflection, they will strengthen self-direction, time management, and their ability to learn from setbacks, diverse perspectives, and scientific evidence.

Students will create test swatch sets from plants, soils, and minerals, annotated reaction notes, measured color comparison charts, sketches, and weekly process journal entries as they investigate how water, heat, acids, and bases affect pigment. They will also produce draft color studies, revised pigment samples, and short artist statement drafts shaped through weekly studio circles and critique. By the end, each student will complete a final pigment portfolio with labeled swatches, reaction evidence, sketches, and a concise artist statement explaining how chemical reactions influenced the results. The culminating class product is a small gallery installation for Alchemy Gallery Night that displays finished color works beside process journals and portfolios for families and community partners such as Ellen Pickens, Spokane Public Library, and the Museum of Arts and Culture.

Kick off with an Alchemy Seed-to-Color Lab Day where students rotate through hands-on stations using plants, soils, and minerals to make pigments and test how water, heat, acids, and bases shift color. Invite Ellen Pickens or a Museum of Arts and Culture educator to model how artists observe materials closely, while students record first reactions, sketches, and testable questions in their process journals. Follow with an Alchemy Gallery Preview Challenge using sample swatches, reaction notes, and artist statements so teams analyze what makes evidence clear and artistically strong, then set personal goals for their own pigment portfolio. End with a whole-group discussion around how chemical reactions help create art and how artists and scientists turn natural resources into usable color.

Host an Alchemy Gallery Night at school where students install finished color studies alongside pigment portfolios that include labeled swatches, reaction notes, sketches, and artist statements. Invite families, Ellen Pickens, the Spokane Public Library, and the Museum of Arts and Culture to view the work and ask students to explain how acids, bases, heat, and water changed their results. Include student-led demonstration stations where small groups show one repeatable pigment test and defend their design choices with evidence from their journals. Create a gallery feedback wall so visitors can respond to both the artistic impact and the scientific reasoning behind each piece.