Author: Slawiak, Sheila

Thank You Community Business Partners

Best Tile
911 Belmont Ave, Springfield, Ma 01108
T: (413) 732-4191

Curio Kitchens & Baths
1045 Boston Rd, Springfield, MA 01119
T: (413) 783-0913

McCarthy Tile Company
1140 Springfield St
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
T: (413) 786-2340

The Home Depot
2001 Boston Rd, Wilbraham, MA 01095
T: (413) 543-8100

H.B. Fuller Construction Products Inc. 1105 S. Frontenac Road, Aurora, IL 60504
T: 1-800-552-6225

Our Special Thank you to
Robert Markey &
Michael Smith

Robert Markey is a world renowned artist who is well known for his mosaic designs. If you walk around downtown Springfield, you will see many of his mosaic projects sprinkled throughout Springfield. Here are the locations of some of his mosaics found in Springfield:
Rock Climbers: Washington & Dwight Streets Pawn Shop
Community Project: Chestnut & Winter Streets
Bikers: Worthington Street & Stearn Park
Jazz Band: Court Square.
Jazz Music: Worthington Street & Stearn Park
Dancers & Dragons: Dwight Street tunnels
He has also directed community projects all around the world including Brazil, India, and Sri Lanka. He owns 2 art studios in Massachusetts and often teaches at the Springfield Art Museum.
Citation: “Robert Markey&#039;S Mirrored Mosaics." Speakingofspringfield.org. N. p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.
The entire Forest Park team thanks him for donating his time and guidance to our students!
Michael Smith is an instructional paraprofessional who has worked at Forest Park Middle School for 6 years. For the past 25 years, Mr. Smith has taught art in an after school program sponsored by the Springfield Boys & Girls Club Family Center. He specializes in scenery, objects, and people pencil drawings. We thank him for taking the time to help us create our mosaics that will forever be a part of this school.

Forest Park Middle School
46 Oakland Street
Springfield, MA 01108
Mr. Thomas Mazza
Principal
T: 413.787.7420
Web: fpmsmakerspace.weebly.com

FPMS

FPMS Makerspace Learning

Forest Park Middle School students will
receive a high quality education that prepares them academically and socially to become contributing members of the community.

Adding Art to STEM Education

FPMS

What is a Makerspace?
A Makerspace is a place where people of same interest share knowledge, thoughts, and supplies. It’s where people with common interests explore, create, and imagine. Because our students share their thoughts, they form knowledge. When they learn how to use their specialized tools, they create art through a design process. This art can be expressed as mosaics, music, dance, and when the tools are technology based robots and projects.
At Forest Park Middle School, we started with a mosaic tile makerspace since we were lucky enough to have Robert Markey, a local mosaic artist, to help us. And, with the belief and love from our community partners who donated their products, our students were able to create their magic!

Students working in the makerspace environment.

Our Mosaic Project: How to Create a Mosaic Tile Design
We worked in teams to practice and develop our collaboration as we learned how to transform our pencil drawings from paper to a mosaic tile masterpiece! Here are our steps:
1. Transfer our pencil design to the mesh.
Student partners drew a design that could express their personality, but also express the community as a whole.
Cut and fit the tiles onto the mesh.
This step takes geometric precision to cut and arrange the tiles.
Apply mortar to the tile design.
We applied non-sag mortar to each individual tile. We allowed our designs to cure for 24 hours.
Mount the mosaics onto the outside wall.
As a maker team, we designed the placement of our tiles. We used non-sag mortar to glue our mosaics to the wall.
Painting & signing our names on the wall.
We painted our courtyard wall a vibrant blue to make our mosaics stand out and to beautify our school. The blue represents limitless and boundaryless learning giving each student the freedom and strength to define their life as a new beginning. We signed our names to leave our legacy and to show our children.

Our Student Makers
Our Forest Park Middle School students worked several hours a day for two weeks to realize their mosaic tile masterpiece. Below are the student designers and their mosaic meanings.
7th Grade
Alejandro, FPMS Falcon: School Spirit
Jamar & Taheem, Lone Wolf: We are individual students
Maria & Maurian, Peace Symbol, Rose & Heart: Hope, Peace and Growth
Oralie & Solcerez, Glass Hearts & Hands: Friendship in Middle School, Puerto Rico and the US
8th Grade
Ariana & Sebastian, Black Cat in Front of Springfield Skyline: Curiosity
Gleiza & Rosa, Umbrella Tree: Tree of Life, Nature Environmental Protection
Danasia & Janece, African American Girl: Culture
Dayana, Ying Yang: Balance
Darlene & Janet, Lotus Flower: Purity of the Body, Speech & Mind