Standards for Educators

Alignment to the Alabama Course of Study

The Amazing Space Race aligns to the 2024 Alabama Course of Study. The eleven stops are mapped below for Visual Arts, with additional connections to mathematics, science, and social studies.

Codes read as discipline, grade, and standard number. VA 3.11 is Visual Arts, Grade 3, Standard 11.  Full text for every standard is in the 2024 Alabama Course of Study: Arts Education. Visual Arts standards begin on page 244. This project has been made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Cross-Curricular Connections are listed by topic at the bottom of this page for educator reference.

Visual Arts

These four apply across the whole tour rather than at any one stop: VA K.10 uses of art in your own community, VA 2.10 aesthetic characteristics of natural and built spaces, VA 3.14 making art from observation of your surroundings, and VA 5.14 using art vocabulary to see familiar places in new ways.

  1. Launch Ahead! (Travelers II, 2022)

Grades K-2: VA K.11 images versus real objects, VA K.12 subject matter and details, VA 2.11 expressive properties

Grades 3-5: VA 3.10 the artist’s process and purpose, VA 3.12 media, visual qualities, and mood

  1. Leaping into Space (Hare-O-Space, Final Leap, 2023)

Grades K-2: VA K.12 subject matter and details, VA 1.11 comparing subjects across works

Grades 3-5: VA 3.11 meanings and messages in visual imagery

  1. The Amazing Space GRACE! (Gracelyn Rose, 2023)

Grades K-2: VA 1.11 comparing subjects and themes, VA K.13 explaining a preference, VA K.9 the purpose of an art museum

Grades 3-5: VA 4.10 comparing works in similar media, VA 3.10 the artist’s process and purpose

  1. An Eclipse (Eclipse, 2023)

Grades K-2: VA 2.12 interpreting mood or feeling, VA K.12 subject matter and details

Grades 3-5: VA 3.10 the artist’s process and purpose, VA 4.12 context and visual qualities

  1. Welcomes from Earth (The Little Lion of Big Spring Park, 1900)

Grades K-2: VA 1.15 art made in different times and places, VA 2.15 cultural uses of artwork across time

Grades 3-5: VA 3.15 how responses shift with knowledge of time and place, VA 4.15 inferring time, place, and culture

  1. Postcard from Huntsville (Welcome to Huntsville, 2016)

Grades K-2: VA 2.12 interpreting mood or feeling, VA 2.1 brainstorming a work of art, VA K.14 art that tells a story

Grades 3-5: VA 4.11 analyzing components that carry meaning, VA 5.11 cultural associations in imagery, VA 4.14 art reflecting community

  1. Huntsville’s Hidden Space (Constant Surprises, Honeyblood/Jessie Andrews)

Grades K-2: VA K.12 subject matter and details, VA 2.10 aesthetic characteristics of a space, VA 2.11 expressive properties

Grades 3-5: VA 3.12 media, visual qualities, and mood, VA 5.12 visual qualities and structure

  1. The Great Art Explore (Courthouse Square, rotating artists)

Grades K-2: VA 2.9 how public display serves a community, VA 1.9 roles of people at art venues, VA K.13 explaining a preference

Grades 3-5: VA 3.7 possibilities and limits of exhibition spaces, VA 4.9 comparing art venues, VA 3.13 evaluating with art vocabulary

  1. Take Me To Your Leaders (Watermarks, 2024)

Grades K-2: VA 2.12 interpreting mood or feeling, VA K.10 uses of art in the community

Grades 3-5: VA 4.12 context and visual qualities, VA 5.11 cultural associations in imagery

  1. AquaLapis (AquaLapis, 2024)

Grades K-2: VA 2.11 expressive properties, VA 2.12 interpreting mood or feeling

Grades 3-5: VA 3.11 meanings and messages in visual imagery, VA 4.11 analyzing components that carry meaning

  1. Lay of the Land (Lay of the Land, 2024)

Grades K-2: VA 2.10 aesthetic characteristics of a space, VA K.11 images versus real objects

Grades 3-5: VA 3.11 meanings and messages in visual imagery, VA 4.15 inferring time, place, and culture

Cross-Curricular Connections

Listed by topic so teachers can match them to the current course of study for their grade: Mathematics (2019), Science (2023), and Social Studies (2024).

Mathematics

  • Polygon sides and Greek number prefixes, at Leaping into Space
  • Two-dimensional shape versus three-dimensional form, at The Amazing Space GRACE!
  • Attributes of solid figures including spheres and rectangular prisms, at An Eclipse
  • Counting and comparing quantities, largest and smallest, at Huntsville’s Hidden Space and The Great Art Explore
  • Elapsed time and mental math from 1900 to the present, at Welcomes from Earth
  • Comparing heights and relative elevation, at Lay of the Land

Science

  • Forces, motion, and the path of a launched object, at Launch Ahead!
  • Animal structures and survival, comparing hares and rabbits, at Leaping into Space
  • Rock formation, weathering, and animal traits, at Welcomes from Earth
  • Patterns of the sun, moon, and Earth, and how shadows shift, at Eclipse
  • Stars and the solar system, at Huntsville’s Hidden Space
  • Gravity and forces acting on a suspended object, at AquaLapis
  • Landforms and mapping features of the Earth, at Lay of the Land

Social Studies

  • Local history and what Huntsville was like around 1900, at Welcomes from Earth
  • Community symbols and what they stand for, at Postcard from Huntsville
  • Municipal government and the work of a mayor and city staff, at Take Me To Your Leaders
  • Cardinal directions and map skills, at The Great Art Explore
  • Geography of the Tennessee Valley, including Monte Sano and Green Mountain, at Lay of the Land