New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC):
Teaching Science through the Arts
Roche provided a grant to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) to establish and
implement "Teaching Science through the Arts", a
program developed by NJPAC’s Arts Education department designed to train K-12
teachers on how to integrate theater, music and dance into the science curriculum.
Teaching Science through the Arts was created on the premise that arts education
helps nurture the emotional, social and educational development of children and can be a
valuable tool for integrating knowledge across academic disciplines. Teaching Science
through the Arts enhances the professional development of educators and encourages
them to utilize hands-on activities in the arts (theater, music or dance) in their science
curriculum. Relevant discussion ideas and specific activities that a science educator can
use are featured in the Teacher’s Resource Guide, a companion guide designed to
extend the educational impact of NJPAC’s Passport to Culture SchoolTime Performance
Series. Articles have included "Teaching Science through Theater" in the
Teacher’s Resource Guide for "Remembering WeSelves: Black Renaissance in
Harlem" and "Teaching Science through Music" in the Teacher’s Resource
Guide for Caribbean Connections among others. Through structured, goal-oriented classroom
activities, students can learn collaborative skills, analytical thinking, creative problem
solving, technical competencies and critical judgments.
The Teaching Science through the Arts initiative also features Professional
Development Days, consisting of workshops highlighting the relationships between the
performing arts and the sciences, and an Arts Basic to the Curriculum (ABC) Conference.
The ABC Conference is a two-day meeting for educators, teaching artists, arts and school
administrators featuring workshops, performances, panel discussions and roundtables that
address various aspect of arts education in grades K-12.
