ABSTRACT
The Shanghai American School’s Innovation Institute in China incorporates a project-based interdisciplinary curriculum in which ninth and tenth grade students are positioned to grapple with some of the world’s most pressing issues, such as global warming, poverty, and pandemics. Through their Social Studies, Science, English, and Art classes, students investigate these challenges from different angles in order to approach them in greater depth. This chapter is focused on the work of the students in the Institute through the lens of the art program, but it is critical to understand that these classes are interconnected in such a way that it is impossible to parse out what we do in art in isolation. With our focus on engaging global issues, our ninth grade Creativity and Design and tenth grade Innovation and Design classes not only help students acquire foundational art skills but also help them develop key understandings about 21st-century media. Over these first two years of high school, in addition to their explorations of traditional materials, they investigate digital design, photography, video, and 3D design, and in our makerspace begin to understand the uses of coding and circuitry towards interactive design.
