This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
In April, lower school social studies teacher Heidi Gough’s grade 3 students participated in an exchange of art projects with grade 4 students at St. Stephen’s College in Australia. “The purpose of our exchange with the fourth graders at St. Stephen’s was for the students on both ends to see the similarities in curriculum, but the differences in what that brings to the table,” Gough said.
The St. Stephen’s students sent drawings of Australian native wildlife with accompanying handwritten paragraphs providing information on the animals drawn. In return, the Harker students created and sent back collages featuring various California Native American tribes, such as the Mojave and Chumash; each collage depicted a typical day in the lives of the people of each tribe.