Questar III’s Arts and Enrichment Service offers schools three options to bring engaging opportunities to students to complement curriculum objectives in the arts, science, math, social studies, and health. The program is broken down into three programs: Cultural and Performing Arts, Exploratory Enrichment, and Odyssey of the Mind.
Jen Cannell is the Director of the Arts and Enrichment Service and the School Library System. She says the benefit to this service is that school districts get help with the planning and organization of how they spend their money for programs as well as professional development if needed to help teachers integrate the Arts into curricular areas.
Artist Claire Sherwood works with high school students from Riverfront Arts Education Collaborative schools at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy.
The Cultural and Performing Arts program is what is usually called “Arts in Education”. This program brings area artists and art programs to students as part of the school curriculum. This could include shows at Proctors, bringing artists to schools to interact with students, and anything else involving theatre, music, dance, visual arts, writing, and media arts.
Exploratory Enrichment focuses opportunities for students on science, math, social studies and health curriculum. This program allows for multi-district programs using resources, facilities and staff of area museums, educational institutions, and content area experts. Things like a trip to the Dudley Observatory, or MiSci in Schenectady fall under Exploratory Enrichment.
Cannell says there’s also opportunities for students to learn from experts in growing businesses. SmartKids NY brings young entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists into the classroom to share cutting-edge technologies and innovations through hands-on demonstrations and experiments.
Questar III also serves as the coordinator for the New York State Region 4 Odyssey of the Mind competition. Odyssey of the Mind is a worldwide education program that develops student’s skills in creative problem solving and teamwork.
To compete in Odyssey of the Mind, students form teams and select one of several long-term problems. On the day of the tournament, students must present their solution to the problem and are scored by judges. Solutions include a variety of parts including construction, song, dance, and character development. After the regional tournament which Questar III coordinates, students can advance to the state competition and world competition.
At least one team from Rensselaer, Columbia, or Greene County has advanced to the World Finals every year since 2007, including 13 in the past five years alone, with four advancing in 2013, three in 2014, and one in 2015.
New this year is an online program request system which allows districts to request specific programming for students and nearly eliminates the paperwork that used to be required when requesting programs. Stepping into the director role in July, Cannell has launched a monthly newsletter to share Arts and Enrichment information.
Arts and Enrichment also coordinates the Annual High School Invitational Art Exhibit (March 30-April 28) at Hudson Valley Community College. This gives students the chance to put their artwork on display for a large audience, and also the opportunity to be judged by a professional artist at the opening reception on March 30. This is the 27th year of the exhibit, and Cannell says it’s a great opportunity for students to publicly display their work.
Arts and Enrichment services are available through three separate CO-SERs: Exploratory Enrichment Programs (CO-SER 412.010), Cultural and Performing Arts Programs (CO-SER 420.020), and Odyssey of the Mind (CO-SER 503.010). For more information or to sign up for the Arts & Enrichment newsletter, please contact Jen Cannell at jen.cannell@questar.org.
To learn more about the Arts and Enrichment service, please visit our website.
