Welcome to the Bering Strait School District

The BSSD Visual Arts curriculum resource guide includes instruction on the 12 primary elements and principles of visual art. These include: line, pattern, shape/form, color, value, texture, space/perspective, rhythm/movement, proportion/scale, balance, unity, and emphasis.

Elementary Grades K – 6: Encounter/Engage/Reflect

The BSSD Visual Arts curriculum follows the encounter/engage/reflect instructional model when teaching students visual art.

Encounter and learn about the art of accomplished artists from nearby and around the world,

past, and present.

Engage in creating art.

Reflect upon the process of learning about and making art.

Artist Biographies and Art Examples:

The BSSD Visual Arts curriculum includes the biographies of local and world-renowned artists, as well as examples of the art forms. Local artists include: Ben Pungowiyi, Melvin Olanna, Lucy Washignton, Wanda Slwooko, Rachel Stasenko, Natalie Akaran, Frank Miller III, Rita Olanna, and Ron Senungetuk. Also, throughout the curriculum guide, many examples of local artists pieces are presented beyond those mentioned in the biographies.

Vocabulary

The BSSD Visual Arts curriculum includes essential vocabulary associated with formal art education in the form of a glossary.

Alaska Content Standards for Art

The BSSD Visual Arts curriculum includes the Alaska Content Standards for Art:

A. A student should be able to create and perform in the arts.

B. A student should be able to understand the historical and contemporary role of the arts in Alaska, the nation, and the world.

C. A student should be able to critique the student's art and the art of others.

D. A student should be able to recognize beauty and meaning through the arts in the student's life.

New Graduation Requirements

North River Salmon Project - That's a Wrap!

North River Salmon Project - Recorded Here!

BSSD teacher Ann Marie Stone, and her students have finished broadcasting the last episode of this year's North River Salmon Project (NRSP) from about 8 miles up river from Unalakleet. Today's show featured student-led presentations that demonstrate their learning outcomes and standards accomplished.
Student Crew Shooting Live

The NRSP is a collaborative, integrated project that this year included six Bering Strait School District sites (Diomede, Koyuk, Elim, Teller, Unalakleet and Shishmaref), as well as over 1,500 students in 18 schools in Australia.

The project was designed with BSSD standards in Science, Social Studies, Cultural Awareness, Technology, Reading, and Writing in mind, and aims to involve students in shared experiments, cross cultural exchanges and an understanding of the influences on the salmon life cycle.

Students participating in, and involved in producing the sessions have an interactive learning experience live from one of the most prolific salmon spawning habitats in the world. The salmon runs in the Unalakleet River are important for subsistence harvest, sport fishing and the commercial fishing industry.
BSSD's Tundra Daisy!

This series of "virtual field trips" was made possible by the gracious volunteer assistance of guest speakers from the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), former BSSD science teacher Henry Oyoumick and university researchers. All shared their expertise and time, BSSD thanks them for their support!

All six themed field trip broadcasts have used the BSSD "Tundra Daisy" Mobile Classroom to push out simultaneous video teleconference (VTC), and Flash stream sessions. Students in participating classrooms ask questions of the SBT students and guests live using Skype and IRC chat tools. In addition, a permanent curriculum module has been built in our iCommunity Moodle and wiki systems for use by future teams of district educators and their students.

Sound, Lights, Action!

Each session has used the live TowCam underwater observation system (BSSD Salmon Cam) for a first hand look at salmon behavior, physiology and morphology as the spawing cycle continued in August and September.

Ann Marie and her students worked very hard to produce these events, and they can be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with comments. A special thanks to GCI SchoolAccess and their tireless Help Desk staff for making the connections with Australia possible. David Foley, and our friends with the New South Wales Department of Education in Dubbo, Australia were also instrumental in both the planning, and the execution of the the 2010 North River Salmon Project.