News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Max Culp checks in on students painting waterfalls during his presentation about artist Bob Ross on Tuesday at Besser Elementary. Students from Alpena Community College taught Besser students about various artists with hands-on projects.

ALPENA — Students from Alpena Community College stepped out of their comfort zones to present to elementary schoolers about an artist — and received extra credit in the process.

On Monday and Tuesday, students from ACC Instructor Amy Drenth’s speech class taught Besser Elementary students about a particular artist and then provided the kids with a hands-on activity related to that artist.

On Tuesday, students Uxia Suarez-Fernandez, Jesse Hartman, Rebecca Romel, and Max Culp presented in four different classrooms.

Suarez-Fernandez taught a second-grade class about Andy Warhol. She gave the students sheets of paper with Campbell Soup cans to color in with crayons.

Jesse Hartman presented on artist Jaume Plensa to a class of fifth graders. Plensa creates sculptures of faces, so Hartman had the students mold balls of clay into faces.

Rebecca Romel talked to second graders about artist Henry Lyman Sayen, and had the students paint a forest in the Fauvism style, which uses non-naturalistic colors and more abstract shapes.

Max Culp presented to first graders about Bob Ross. He showed the students a painting of a waterfall done by Ross and had them replicate it in their own paintings.

Drenth said that the presentations show a great collaboration between ACC and Alpena Public Schools. She was happy with the number of students who decided to participate.

Suarez-Fernandez said that she enjoyed presenting to students, but found it difficult to keep their attention at first.

“It has impacted me to get out of my comfort zone and do some research into something that at first I was not interested in, however, I enjoyed every moment of it,” she said.

Romel explained how the project taught her about adjusting a presentation depending on the audience.

“This has changed the way I give presentations by teaching me that sometimes you need to be able to get over the distractions that an audience can cause,” she said. “I have learned that sometimes you have to adjust your topic to your audience.”

Romel said she hasn’t given a presentation like this before, but if given the opportunity, she would do it again. She also appreciated the fact that the project allowed her to get involved with the community.

Some projects were more involved than others, but the kids seemed to enjoy the break from their typical schedule.

Students in Culp’s classroom enjoyed using paint in class and made a bit of a mess in the process. Many of the students chose to wear makeshift plastic bag smocks that Culp brought, so the kids did not get paint on their clothes. The other ACC presenters came to help Culp with clean-up once their presentations were over, showing a sense of teamwork and collaboration between the students.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.