The aroma of sweet blueberries could be smelled throughout room 226 as art teacher Jennifer Hensley and her Chemistry of Art students boiled fruit as part of their natural inks unit.
This unique unit combined foods like blueberries and beets with various chemicals to create new colors for painting. Hensley even modified a French press to help her students extract the juice.
Despite teachers at four schools across the district being interested in adding the class to their course list, and resounding praise from students, according to Hensley, the course was cut at the Shawnee Mission School District meeting on Dec. 8 and will not be offered for next year.
Hensley taught the semester-long elective with chemistry teacher Susan Hallstrom in 2023-2024, and then taught it on her own in 2025-2026. The elective intertwines science and studio art, and includes projects such as glass blowing to replicate making scientific equipment, experimenting with using tannins to tone cyanotypes, creating rings using a type of diffusion lamination, and creating natural inks.
“This class connects chemistry with art with fantastic and beautiful results,” previous Chemistry of Art student and junior Jill Divadeenam said.
The district determined that the class did not fit into a clear career pathway and did not align with other course options, which contributed to their decision not to continue it next year, according to a recording of the meeting.
Hensley had proposed changing the name of the course to Materials Science in Engineering to align with the Kansas Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, hoping this would secure a long-term spot for the course. However, this proposal was also denied, according to Hensley.
She received countless glowing reviews from her students after teaching the class for two years, and felt like the class made an impact on her students. The class emphasized the importance of applying challenging concepts to real-life scenarios and experiencing chemistry in a hands-on manner, according to Hensley.
“I never thought I would be able to create bioplastic, something applicable in everyday life and good for the environment,” Divadeenam said.
Divadeenam believes the class provided experiences that are truly unique and cannot be found in any other course.
“We discuss how Gorilla Glass was invented and why ceramics can withstand heat since they are used as space shuttle tiles,” Hensley said.
Later in the ceramics and glass units, students even make their own types of glass.
Hensley and Hallstrom developed the syllabus course framework from scratch themselves in 2022 for the course proposal. Hensley was devastated after learning the class was being cut after spending the past two years creating all of the course materials. She believed that the next year would be when the class truly flourished because it would have more of a reputation.
She was devastated after learning the class was being cut, since Hensley and Hallstrom had developed the syllabus and coursework from scratch themselves. They believed that the next year would be when the class truly flourished because it would have more of a reputation.
“I know of at least 30 students who were planning on taking the class, and that's just what I know,” Hensley said.
Hensley is currently refining the curriculum to better align with CTE curriculum in hopes of getting the class approved for the 2027-28 school year. She is including a collection of student testimonials and valuable curriculum adjustments in her course proposal.
For now, her makeshift ink-extracting French press is on a break, but there is still hope for the return of Chemistry of Art under a new name in room 226.
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