Stop by and admire the “Everything Soy” sculpture, a 4-foot high, oval, fiberglass soybean that is on display at the Urbandale Library. Approximately 250 students in first through fifth grade at Olmsted Elementary School, in Urbandale, contributed their creative talents to the Soy on Parade project.

Classroom teachers at Olmsted talked about the many uses of soy with their students to prepare them for the art project. A variety of soy themes were assigned to each grade level. The students were instructed to draw pencil pictures on four-inch squares of white paper. The drawings were outlined in black marker and filled in with crayon. The student’s collage was then applied to the soybean using a decoupage technique.
“The students were surprised to learn that a variety of household products contain soy - including candles, veggie burgers and even the crayons used to decorate the giant soybean sculpture,” said project leader Tammy Schmitz, art teacher at Olmsted Elementary.