This proposal examines how a community-engaged data visualization project in art teacher preparation became a model for pedagogical transfer, as a preservice teacher adapted its multimodal methods into their student teaching practicum with K-12 learners. The project began in a university art education context where preservice teachers engaged with environmental data collected from Lake Erie as a material for artistic inquiry, visual communication, and media-based learning. Working across data literacy, visual literacy, and digital tools, students translated complex environmental information into creative forms that connected artmaking with natural phenomena.This case traces how one student team member carried their project experience forward into student teaching, designing a data visualization project for their own students. This application of university coursework to classroom practice illustrates how preservice teachers reinterpret art- and science-based methodologies in relation to learners, settings, curricular goals, and available materials. The presentation will examine this process as an example of multimodal pedagogy, cross-generational mentorship, and emerging teacher identity formation.By foregrounding the relationship between the original data visualization project and its later adaptation in a student teaching practicum, this work offers insight into how educator preparation programs can support candidates in developing transferable and innovative pedagogical practices. It also considers how data visualization can function as a bridge between art education, environmental inquiry, and digital media. Ultimately, the project demonstrates how multimodal learning experiences in teacher preparation can travel beyond the university classroom and become meaningful teaching practices in K–12 settings.
