by Dustin Atlas
The K-12 Education team planned an exciting start to 2018 for Shore Road School in Long Island. As students returned from the winter holiday, seven 5th grade classes participated in an extended, guided visit to the Center for Architecture.
Students learned about a variety of sustainable design techniques used to create environmentally friendly buildings during our Green Architecture Student Day workshop. After an in-depth presentation and discussion, each student had an opportunity to build a scale model of his or her own green design. This activity challenged each participant to think about the importance of site planning, energy efficiency, material conservation, and renewable resources.
After a lunch break, students were eager to investigate the Scaffolding exhibition and learn about this new architectural topic. Our design educators prepared a special gallery tour and scavenger hunt to help students engage with the show. Influenced by previous conversations from the Green Architecture workshop, many of the students looked at this exhibition through an environmental lens, pointing out some of the green features. One student shared that “scaffolding is a great idea because it can be recycled and used over and over without being thrown away or demolished.” Another student pointed out that, with scaffolding, it “doesn’t take a lot of material to make something special for the city.”
Teachers from these classes were very impressed by the active learning they observed during their visits. One teacher left the following comment in her evaluation: “Students were able to make strong connections with current topics relating to the environment and Earth’s Systems. We are incorporating more STEM activities into our classroom and this visit was a great example of hands-on, interactive, small-group learning.”
To learn more about K-12 Education programs at the Center for Architecture, please visit our website at www.centerforarchitecture.org/k-12