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Project Grade 9 Art & Music

Two Faces of Nutrients: A Grade 9 Museum Exhibit Panel Project

Grade 9 teams design a three-panel museum exhibit showing nutrients as both resource and pollutant, with an honest dissolved-oxygen chart and a design rationale.

Objectives

  1. Students will design exhibit panels that present nutrients as both a resource and a pollutant.
  2. Students will build a dissolved-oxygen chart with an honest scale and a zero origin.
  3. Students will write a design rationale that defends their layout and accuracy choices.

Vocabulary

Algal bloom
An algal bloom is a fast, thick growth of algae that can turn a lake green and scummy. Blooms happen when the water gets lots of nutrients and warm sunshine, and some blooms make toxins.
Dissolved oxygen
Dissolved oxygen is the oxygen gas mixed into water that fish and other underwater animals breathe. Cold, moving water holds more oxygen than warm, still water.

Also: exhibit panel, visual hierarchy, word budget, colorblind-safe palette

Teacher overview

Nitrogen and phosphorus are nutrients that plants and crops depend on, and the same nutrients, in excess, feed the algal blooms that starve a lake of oxygen. That double truth is hard to hold in one graphic, which makes it a strong exhibit design problem. Over four sessions, teams design a three-panel museum exhibit for a fictional science center that tells both sides clearly, including an honest chart of how dissolved oxygen drops during a bloom. The final deliverable is a set of three finished panels, a data chart, and a one-page design rationale presented to a review board.

Two Faces of Nutrients: A Grade 9 Museum Exhibit Panel Project — Grade 9 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Driving question: How can three panels show nutrients as both a resource and a pollutant, so a visitor gets both ideas fast?

Scenario: The Galehaven Science Center is a fictional museum. It is adding a small exhibit on the two sides of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Yarrow Valley area. Each team works as a design studio and presents its exhibit to the center's review board.

Constraints:

  • The exhibit is three panels. Each panel is 24 inches by 36 inches.
  • Each panel has one headline. The body text is 60 words or fewer. This forces clear choices about what to show.
  • One panel must show a chart of dissolved oxygen before and during a bloom. In the fictional Yarrow Valley pond, dissolved oxygen fell from 8 mg/L to 3 mg/L during the bloom. Most fish need more than 5 mg/L. The chart must start at a zero origin and state its scale.
  • The palette must be colorblind-safe. Every part must read clearly without color alone.

Final deliverable: Three finished panels, the oxygen chart, and a one-page design rationale. Teams present them to the review board in a short talk.

Milestones

  1. Session 1 (research and concept): Teams read the background sheet. They then build a content outline. The outline names one idea for each panel: nutrients as a resource, nutrients as a pollutant, and finding the balance. Teams also sketch a thumbnail for all three panels. Output: a content outline and three thumbnail sketches.
  2. Session 2 (data panel): Teams design the oxygen chart on grid paper. They choose a scale, place a zero origin, and label the units. The chart should show the fall from 8 mg/L to 3 mg/L against the 5 mg/L fish line. Output: a labeled chart with its scale written out.
  3. Session 3 (layout and access): Teams lay out all three panels at 24 by 36 inches. They keep each panel to 60 words. They apply a colorblind-safe palette. They add icons or labels so color is not the only clue. Output: three drafted panels that meet the size and word limits.
  4. Session 4 (rationale and review): Teams write the one-page design rationale. It explains their content, chart scale, and color choices. Teams then present the panels and the rationale to the review board. Output: final panels, chart, rationale, and a short talk.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Rubric
Criterion Emerging Developing Proficient Advanced
Two-sided content (resource and pollutant) Only one side of the nutrient story appears Both sides appear but one is unclear or inaccurate Both sides are clear and accurate within the word budget Both sides are clear, accurate, and connected so the visitor sees why balance is hard
Honest data chart Chart is missing or has no stated scale Chart shows the data but uses a cut origin or an unlabeled scale Chart uses a zero origin, a stated scale, and labeled units Chart is honest and also makes the 5 mg/L fish threshold easy to read against the drop
Accessibility and layout Panels exceed the size or word limits and rely on color alone Panels mostly fit the limits but color still carries meaning alone Panels fit the size and word limits and use color plus icons or labels Panels fit every limit, are colorblind-safe, and use a clear hierarchy that guides the eye
Design rationale and presentation Rationale is missing or does not explain choices Rationale lists choices without reasons Rationale explains the content, chart, and accessibility choices Rationale explains the choices and anticipates a question the review board might ask

Differentiation

Support

Provide the content outline partly filled, with the three panel ideas already named, so teams focus their effort on design and the chart. Supply the dissolved-oxygen values on a pre-labeled grid so the scale work in Session 2 is guided rather than open-ended.

Extension

Ask teams to add a fourth optional handout-sized panel proposing one action Yarrow Valley could take to cut excess nutrients, and to defend the action in the rationale using the same resource-and-pollutant framing.

ELL supports

Provide a labeled glossary of nutrient, algal bloom, and dissolved oxygen with a home-language gloss where possible, plus headline sentence frames for each panel. Allow the rationale to be written as labeled captions beside the panels rather than a single essay.

Extensions

Teams can adapt their three panels into a short slideshow or a folded brochure for a different audience, such as farmers or lakeside homeowners, keeping the two-sided story but changing the emphasis and the recommended action for that group.