CTI invited the community to explore the many aspects of light through the lenses of art, science and education at The Art and Chemistry of Light, a Teachers as Scholars event on Tuesday, May 21, at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. The program featured presentations and discussions with local educators who studied the topic together in a 2018 CTI seminar (The Art and Chemistry of Light), including UNC Charlotte Chemistry Scholar Tom Schmedake and 11 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers.

The event began with a reception at 5:30 p.m. showcasing new teaching ideas educators developed during their CTI seminar led by Dr. Schmedake. The main program started at 6:30 p.m., featuring mini-presentations by Schmedake and five teachers on a range of topics, followed by a panel discussion. 

Schmedake discussed the art and chemistry of light in the context of his own research and the experience of leading a recent seminar with teachers. The Fellows’ mini-presentations examined: the role of light energy in an elementary art class; the cyanotype printing process in high school photography; energy and society in middle school science; the application of light in high school forensic science; and hands-on light demonstrations for high school students with intellectual disabilities. 

During the reception other seminar teachers shared poster presentations on the application of light energy in high school chemistry; the color visualizations of linear functions in middle school math; principles of light energy in middle school science; the visible light spectrum in high school science; and light, color and Dr. Seuss in a first grade classroom.

VIEW CTI FELLOWS’ POSTER PRESENTATIONS HERE:

The Art & Chemistry of Light — Tom Schmedake
The Brightside of Energy Consumption — Michelle Faggert
My Many Colored Days — Elizabeth Kerr
Natural Light, Artificial Light, and Pollution — Zach Sanford
Do You See What I See? The Use of Light in Forensic Science — Jackie Smith
Seeing Art-Making in a New Light: Cyanotype Printing — Diane Strickland
Lights, Color, Action — Teresa Strohl
Chemistry Across the Spectrum — Josh Trujillo
Personifying Light: The Life and Times of Roy G. Biv — Erika Williams

SEE PHOTOS HERE.

Reception guests also viewed the museum’s Nomadic Murals: Tapestries of the Modern Era exhibition showcasing a diverse collection of modern art tapestries from the mid-20^th century. 

This event was part of CTI’s Teachers As Scholars educational series for the public that highlights collaborative work by professors and teachers in CTI seminars. This project was made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

About the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art 
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art opened in Charlotte on January 1, 2010. The majority of the museum’s holdings originated with Hans and Bessie Bechtler, Swiss collectors based in Zurich, who mainly collected European modern art created during the mid-20th century. Their son, Andreas Bechtler, donated the majority of his collection to the city of Charlotte and to house it the City hired renowned Swiss architect Mario Botta to design the museum. The building and the Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture, L ‘Oiseau de Feu sur l’Arche (The Firebird), which stands in front of it, have already become icons for the region. The collection holds over 1,500 works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Le Corbusier, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Manessier, Gustave Singier, Pierre Soulages, Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol (who executed the family portraits), Meret Oppenheim, Tom Wesselmann, Kenneth Noland, Victor Vasarely, Hans Hartung, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Mark Tobey, Sam Francis, Paul Klee, Georges Rouault, Fernand Léger, Nicolas de Staël, Eduardo Chillida, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, and others. 

CTI hosted Exploring American Sacred Values, a special event for the public providing a window into penetrating learning in a CTI seminar for teachers, on Thursday, Feb. 21, at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture, as part of CTI’s Teachers As Scholars series.

The event was based on the 2018 CTI seminar of the same name, led by Kendall Mobley, religion professor at Johnson C. Smith University, with 10 CTI Seminar Fellows (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers). Mobley and the teachers participated in the February event as program speakers and exhibit presenters.

Mobley provided a retrospective of the seminar, focusing on American civil religion as “religion repurposed to infuse the present political order and with sacred significance and authority” and how it shapes current national traditions, symbols and beliefs. Four Fellows also spoke about curricula they developed in the seminar, examining CMS values related to America’s founding fathers, pay-for-play in college sports, forced conformity in early Native American schools, and media influence on social values and the American dream:

• Recognizing the Wilson Way Values in the American Revolution, Pia Townes, 8th Grade Social Studies, Wilson STEM Academy
• At What Cost? Native American Children and Boarding Schools of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Tracy Kennedy, 4th/5th Grades, E.E. Waddell Language Academy
• Harmony at the Key: Conversations on the Court, Deborah Brown, English, Zebulon Vance High School
• Intersection of African-Americans, Civil Religion and Media Influence, Franchone Bey, English and Film, West Charlotte High School

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Angie Chandler, senior manager of program and educational initiatives for the Gantt Center.

All 10 Seminar Fellows also shared curriculum exhibits related to American values that the teachers targeted to address with students. Topics included: how Charlotte’s Excelsior Club nurtured community; segregation, civil rights and legislation; voting as a civic duty; oppression of women; acculturation of English language learners; and what it means to be an American.

“Exploring American Sacred Values” is part of CTI’s “Teachers as Scholars” educational series for the public that highlights collaborative work by professors and teachers in CTI seminars. This Feb. 21 event was supported by a grant from UNC Charlotte’s Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund and Johnson C. Smith University.

CMS classroom teachers can apply to participate in the upcoming 2020 CTI seminars; March 8 is the deadline for applications.

January 2018 WBTV interview with Kendal Mobley

CTI will co-host Educator Preview Day on Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture. Educators at all grade levels from throughout the region are invited to attend free of charge from 5 to 8 p.m., for guided tours of the galleries and opportunities to learn about new seminars, workshops and curricular tools available through CTI and the Gantt Center. Current Gantt Center exhibitions include: Welcome to Brookhill, Question Bridge: Black Males, and Hank Willis Thomas: What We Ask is Simple.

CMS teachers will have the unusual opportunity to sit in on a CTI seminar in progress (Exploring American Sacred Values led by Dr. Kendall Mobley, religion professor at Johnson C. Smith University) and also learn about upcoming CTI seminars for 2019.

Light refreshments will be provided. Teachers interested in attending Educator Preview Day should RSVP to angie@ganttcenter.org

CTI is  pleased to partner with the Gantt Center for this preview program. One evening + Two great organizations with One important goal =  ENGAGING EDUCATORS to impact their students. Join us!

Also read about Evening for Educators on Oct. 9 at Discovery Place Education Studio

CTI and the Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice hosted a curriculum planning workshop for CMS teachers on Aug. 15 at Queens University of Charlotte, presented by the Equal Justice Initiative (Montgomery, AL). Committed to changing the narrative about race in America, EJI produces groundbreaking reports, discussion guides, teacher education workshops, lesson plans and other educational materials, as well as short films that explore our nation’s history of racial injustice. EJI recently launched a national effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, which shapes many issues today.

Long-time and greatly admired East Mecklenburg High School teacher Larry Bosc, now retired, coordinated the workshop. Larry is a former CTI Fellow who participated in CTI’s African American Literature of the Civil Rights Movement at Davidson College in 2012. (See civil rights-related curriculum units from that seminar HERE.) Following the day-long workshop with the EJI and his CMS teaching colleagues, Larry provided this report on the day:

Given recent events in Charlottesville, last Tuesday’s seminar delivered by EJI staff Kiara Boone and Jonathan Kubakundimana couldn’t have been more appropriate. Although EJI’s work in criminal justice reform has righted many wrongs, their focus in this seminar was on their stated message that “we cannot reach reconciliation without first acknowledging the truth about our past, and until we confront this history and its legacy, we will remain challenged by extremism and racial bias.” The event, sponsored by the Charlotte Teachers Institute and the Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University, was attended by 27 CMS teachers. It began in the morning with presentations by Boone and Kubakundimana featuring their research into racial violence in American and their plans for a museum and memorial to victims of the over 4,000 lynchings in the South from 1877-1955. Additionally, they made available to all participants numerous pamphlets containing this information and exposed teachers to their curriculum guide available on their website. The afternoon session featured small group work as teachers processed the information given to them in the morning and began work on their lesson plans. Judging by teacher comments, the morning presentation had given them some great energy as they prepare to meet their students in the weeks to come.

CMS teacher Kheiston Tilford had this to say about the workshop: One of the best PD’s I’ve ever been to. I left feeling honored to tell my history, empowered and compelled to do more research and ask more questions about my family history and resources….Great resources to help us facilitate discussion inside and outside of our classrooms! ??? Thank you!