“ANIMAL EXPO”: Animal art and accompanying essays by students of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart are on display through April 12 at D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Olivia Rainbow Gallery, One Preservation Place, Princeton.

D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Olivia Rainbow Gallery presents “Animal Expo,” art by students of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, through April 12. In this imaginative, interdisciplinary project, teachers from different subject areas collaborated to create multi-faceted learning experiences for junior kindergarten, first-, and third-grade pupils. Each class approached the project through social studies, STEAM, and technology. Jill Work was technology teacher for “Animal Expo,” and Elene Nickerson was the STEAM teacher. The project also emphasized language and information skills, in addition to the creative multimedia art.

Lively interpretations of animals fill the Olivia Rainbow Gallery, including creatures native to New Jersey in general and Central Jersey in particular. The young artists also crafted essays on habitat, food, interactions of their species with Lenapes of long ago, and with 21st-century humans. All addressed habitat requirements and environmental effects upon their chosen species.

Each Stuart first-grader chose a specific farm animal to study and depict. Third-graders — with Aileen O’Shea and Denise King, teachers — depicted their animals in vivid oil pastels. Their species studies were tied to Lenape traditions. Stuart’s junior kindergarten students utilized field guides to local birds, with emphasis upon winter’s species; even learning to distinguish male from female of the species. The class also watched the maturation of eagles through the live Duke Farms Eagle Cam; and multiple species through the bird-cam of Cornell University’s Department of Ornithology. Andres Duque, art teacher, coordinated this interweaving.

The Olivia Rainbow Gallery of D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center is located at One Preservation Place, Princeton. Admission is free. For more information, call (609) 924-4646 or visit the website at www.drgreenway.org.