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9th Grade  Project 2 weeks

Pattern Play: Drawing Geometry Through Art

Aaron A
Updated
HS.3.1
HS.3.2
HS.G-MG.A.3
HS.3.3
HS.G-MG.A.1
+ 5 more
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Purpose

Students will investigate, “How can we use geometry to design artwork that shows pattern, balance, and movement?” Through sketching, measurement, experimentation, and peer feedback, they will create and refine an original geometric artwork connected to their identity, community, or perspective. Students will collaboratively solve design challenges, explain how geometric properties shaped their choices, and present evidence of artistic and technical growth.

Learning goals

Students will use geometric shapes, measurements, ratios, transformations, and properties to create artwork that communicates pattern, balance, and movement. They will plan, experiment with, critique, and revise designs using traditional drawing tools and a new art medium. Students will compare artistic perspectives, collaborate through shared decisions and feedback, and solve design challenges connected to identity, place, or community. They will exhibit their finished work and clearly explain how their geometric and artistic choices answer the essential question.

Standards
  • [Colorado] HS.3.1 - Establish a practice of planning and experimentation to advance concepts and technical artistic skills.
  • [Colorado] HS.3.2 - Ideate and build works of art and design to demonstrate growth and proficiency in traditional and new art media.
  • [Colorado] HS.G-MG.A.3 - Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).
  • [Colorado] HS.3.3 - Articulate and demonstrate that the making and study of art and design can be approached from a variety of perspectives.
  • [Colorado] HS.G-MG.A.1 - Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).
Competencies
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Products

Students will create a visual planning journal with geometric shape studies, measured pattern experiments, and notes on balance and movement. Small teams will produce thumbnail sketches, select a design approach, and use peer feedback to revise it. Each student will complete a polished geometric artwork in a traditional or digital medium that answers, “How can we use geometry to design artwork that shows pattern, balance, and movement?” The project will conclude with a class exhibition featuring artist statements that explain geometric choices, varied artistic perspectives, collaboration, and growth through experimentation.

Launch

Begin with a gallery walk of geometric patterns from local architecture, public art, textiles, and diverse artistic traditions. In small teams, students use transparent overlays to identify shapes, transformations, symmetry, ratios, and visual movement, then record “notice” and “wonder” observations. Teams arrange paper geometry tiles into a quick collaborative composition and revise one feature to strengthen balance or movement. Conclude by discussing: “How can we use geometry to design artwork that shows pattern, balance, and movement?”

Exhibition

Host a pop-up “Geometry in Motion” gallery in a school hallway, library, or classroom for peers, families, and staff. Display each geometric artwork with a brief artist statement identifying the shapes, measurements, pattern choices, revisions, and perspective used to create balance and movement. Student teams co-curate the layout, rotate as gallery guides, and answer the question, “How can we use geometry to design artwork that shows pattern, balance, and movement?” Visitors leave feedback noting one effective geometric choice and one question, which students use in a short final reflection.