Columbus Elementary's Design, Technology and Art Expo

Art, science and technology was on display at Columbus Elementary School Monday evening. The large-scale Columbus Expo is a yearly venture for the school, one that draws in hundreds of students and parents.

The reason for the expo is simple, said Principal Dr. Yigal Joseph: to teach area and perimeter.

“In the end, it results in our students scoring quite well—four years in a row—the highest math scores in New Rochelle … for students who are both financially challenged and linguistically challenged,” he said.

The school lies in the heart of Zip code 10801, which contains a high Hispanic population. Filled to the brim with papers, research, glue and glitter, the gym served as an outlet for the upper classmen’s research. Specifically, the third grade looked at the food chain and adaptation; the fifth grade looked at the recent BP oil spill’s impact on the environment.

The fourth grade students worked all year with an architect in residence from the New York Architecture Foundation, learning elements of design and architectural drawings and learning how to make two-dimensional drawings.

“I don’t have kids in the school; I just came just to see the Expo. I was pleased in seeing the originality,” said Alberto Marte of New Rochelle. 

This year, students focused on the placement of art and the display of art. Four teams in every class are responsible for creating a design—a layout of the expo.

“It is a math and design exercise,” Joseph said. “They had certain parameters—like each booth had to be 120 square feet. They need to be prepared to install the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade work.”

Each team markets their design to judges, and then the judges provide critiques. A new design is created from a winning team. And that design is turned into reality. The 4th grade builds booths out of PVC pipes in the gym.

“They go from 2-D, to 3-D, to in vivo building the design,” Joseph said.

Fourth-grade student Alexa Coffin performed in the Expo. “We did an artist play," she said. "I was one of five. We did how the girl Julie met Claude Monet. I was a dog in the play, so I got my face painted for the part.”

“It is really amazing what kids can do,” said Laura Rada, whose son showed off two art pieces some of which was based on Picasso.

Fifth-grade students stood by their installments, encouraging the patrons to try the hands-on activities and explaining what they had learned.

Be sure to view the many photos from the 2011 Columbus Expo, and keep your calendar clear for the next round in 2012.