Where does art end and science begin? For centuries, scientific illustration has lived in the space between them.

By uncovering how these two fields have worked hand in hand, you’ll walk away with practical tools to bring cross-curricular opportunities into your teaching, making learning more dynamic, engaging, and impactful for your students.

Through carefully curated articles, videos, and case studies, you’ll not only gain foundational knowledge but also develop a deeper understanding of how information is conveyed through both artistic and scientific lenses. We’ll show you how art and science outside the classroom share a symbiotic relationship that can be modeled to enrich any educational program, offering new ways to spark your students’ curiosity.

This course will wrap up by tackling the big question: Why does this all matter? You’ll explore how integrating art and science can help students become more culturally aware and prepare them to positively impact the world — building a future where biodiversity thrives and equity is the standard.

Join us and discover how the power of scientific illustration can not only captivate but also educate, setting your students up for success in today’s rapidly changing world.

What does it mean to be an American, and how has visual art shaped what it means to belong to this nation?

This course will take you on a journey through the evolving identity of the United States through the unique lens of its artwork. From early national portraiture to contemporary social art, you’ll discover how artists have responded to pivotal moments in American history, including colonization, revolution, the Civil War, slavery, immigration, industrialization, civil rights, and beyond.

From early maps to contemporary murals, artists have imagined, reflected, and questioned what it means to be American. Ultimately, this course will help us to understand who we are, where we’ve been, and where we might be going.

What happens when creativity meets code?

This course invites educators to explore the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative arts. Participants will investigate how AI systems are trained to generate visual art, music, and written language, while also considering the cultural, ethical, and philosophical questions these technologies raise. Through real-world examples and critical analysis, educators will gain insight into both the potential and the limitations of AI in creative contexts.

By the end of the course, educators will be better equipped to understand AI’s influence on artistic expression in our culture and schools. They will also be prepared to help students decide when and how to use these tools — to approach them with curiosity and creativity, but also with a strong sense of responsibility in an increasingly algorithmic world.

Art and music have always been partners in shaping the human experience — two voices telling the same story across centuries.

This course invites you on a journey through time, where brushstrokes and musical notes collide, echoing the emotions, revolutions, and innovations of every era.

What does a Gothic cathedral sound like? How did Renaissance painters and composers both chase the perfect balance of form and harmony? Why did Romantic artists and musicians lean into drama, passion, and rebellion? Each era has its own creative language, and understanding the connections between visual and musical expression unlocks a deeper appreciation of how culture evolves.

One of the most fascinating intersections of art and music is opera — a genre that fuses painting, architecture, theater, storytelling, and composition into one immersive experience. As we explore the evolution of opera, we’ll see how it acts as a mirror to history, pulling together all the elements of an era into a single performance.

For educators, this course offers fresh ways to connect the arts in the classroom, bridging disciplines to show students how creativity moves across time and medium. Whether you teach art, music, history, or humanities, these insights will provide engaging narratives and interdisciplinary approaches that bring history alive in a way that feels dynamic, relevant, and inspiring.

What is art, who is it for, and why should it be taught as an essential subject?

This course guides you through the history of art education in the United States and explores how its purposes have been defined, challenged, and continually revised. Beginning with early advocacy and the nineteenth-century industrial drawing movement, the course traces the field through progressive education, the creativity movement, discipline-based reform, and contemporary concerns with standards, access, and equity.

Think of the course as an active conversation with the past in which you compare today’s teaching practices with those that came before and see yourself as part of a continuing narrative shaped by advocates for art and dedicated educators. Their work has influenced individual students while also affirming art education’s importance to schools, communities, and society.

Rather than deciding whether a particular era got art education right or wrong, you will examine why its ideas made sense within their historical context, what tensions they created, and what they continue to offer as both guideposts and cautions. Through foundational documents, influential figures, and institutional reforms, you will explore competing aims: practical application vs. personal expression, freedom vs. structure, and tradition vs. change.

Understanding the history of these tensions can make them less overwhelming and more navigable, helping you make informed and purposeful choices in your own teaching. The course concludes with a broader perspective on the field and renewed confidence, purpose, and joy as you consider the path forward for your students and for art education.

Why do two students look at the same image and see something completely different?

The answer turns out to live inside the brain itself. By examining what happens inside the human brain when we look at images, create art, and interpret the visual world, participants discover what that biology can teach us about the students sitting in our classrooms.

Most of us move through life assuming that the way we see the world is simply the way it is. This course gently, and sometimes delightfully, challenges that assumption. Drawing on research from neuroscience and psychology, participants examine how the brain does not simply record the world around us; it actively constructs it, filtering and shaping perception through the lens of biology and lived experience. Knowing how that construction works is more than an intellectual insight. It is an invitation to see the classroom through your students’ eyes and better understand how they arrive at different interpretations of the same image, direction, or assignment.

For educators, this insight can be transformative. Two students can look at the same image and walk away with completely different interpretations, not because one is wrong, but because perception itself is personal. When teachers understand this, something shifts. Moments that once felt like confusion or resistance begin to look like biology at work. That shift is the heart of this course, and it has a name: empathy. Understanding why students see and interpret differently is one of the most powerful tools an educator can carry into a classroom.

Throughout the course, participants explore how artistic practices such as observational drawing, shading, perspective, and portraiture are not simply technical skills but windows into how the brain organizes visual information. Each module connects a specific perceptual process to the experience of making or reading art, and then connects both of those to what students actually encounter in school. Attention, memory, identity, and emotion each shape the way students respond to images and ideas, and each of those processes turns out to have a biological story worth knowing. The course also moves from understanding into practice, inviting educators to consider how this knowledge can shape the way they design classrooms, plan lessons, and respond to the students in front of them.

The course then extends these ideas into broader questions about what art education can do. When students understand that their perceptions are constructed rather than given, they begin to see interpretation itself as something worth examining. Educators who carry that understanding with them are better equipped to design learning environments that make room for different ways of seeing, respond to differences with curiosity, and use visual inquiry intentionally across disciplines.

By the end of the course, participants leave with more than strategies. They gain a new way of seeing their students, their classrooms, and the deeply human process of learning itself.

This class continues the advanced student’s investigation into the many considerations involved in drawing from the human figure. Beginning with an objective analysis of the figure’s structure and an emphasis on observational technique, we proceed to a more subjective, empathetic view of the figure, where personal vision, experience, and expression come into play. Throughout the course we stress perceptual, formal, and interpretive skills, as well as the abstract elements of composition, shape, and rhythm involved in a successful drawing of any kind.

Drawing I introduces students to the foundations of drawing through curiosity, observation, and practice. Students learn how to look carefully at the world around them while developing skills in proportion, contour line, shape, value, and shading. Projects progress from simple to more challenging, with each drawing building on skills learned in the one before it. The goal is to help students become more confident observers and more capable, expressive artists.

Drawing II builds on the skills developed in Drawing I, challenging students to look more closely at space, detail, and the relationships between objects. Students strengthen their observational drawing skills while also exploring how artwork can become more personal and meaningful. Projects may incorporate objects, colors, environments, and styles that connect to students’ own experiences and interests. As students learn to see more, they also begin to develop a stronger individual voice in their drawings.

Design introduces students to the elements of art and principles of design through experimentation, play, and creative problem-solving. Students explore how artists use line, shape, color, pattern, balance, contrast, movement, and other visual tools to organize ideas and create strong compositions. Through a variety of hands-on projects, students learn to make thoughtful creative choices while discovering how even simple shapes and colors can communicate ideas and create visual impact.

Cartooning combines drawing and writing to help students create characters, stories, and visual narratives. Students begin by learning the basics of cartooning through humorous single-panel and multi-panel comics, experimenting with expressions, poses, dialogue, timing, and visual storytelling. Later, students create their own heroes and develop original comics inspired by the idea of the hero’s journey, connecting larger adventures to the challenges and experiences of middle school life. The course encourages imagination, humor, storytelling, and individual drawing styles.

Ceramics I introduces students to the basic tools, techniques, and possibilities of working with clay. Students learn how to shape, score, slip, join, texture, and decorate clay while creating both functional and sculptural forms. Projects progress through techniques such as pinch pots, slab construction, and introductory wheel throwing, allowing students to build their skills with each new challenge. Along the way, students explore how form, pattern, surface, and craftsmanship can transform clay into unique works of art.

Graphic Design introduces students to creating art with digital tools using iPads and programs such as Procreate. Students learn essential techniques including digital drawing, working with layers, selecting and transforming images, combining photographs and drawings, and creating digital collages. Projects encourage experimentation with color, composition, typography, and imagery while showing students how contemporary artists and designers communicate visually. The emphasis is on using modern tools not simply for their effects, but as new ways for students to develop ideas and express themselves.