September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 by shannonchance

Constructing a Student-Centered Studio

Architecture & Urban Design, Education Research, Engineering Education, Environment & Sustainability, Research Blog
architecture, architecture studio, group-based learning, Hampton University, PBL, research, science, self-directed learning, student-centered learning
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The incoming second year architecture studio cohort at Hampton University.

Today I applyed what I learned about problem-based learning (PBL), group learning, and student-centered pedagogies while I was on my Fulbright fellowship at Dublin Institute of Technology. I met the students in my second year architecture studio for the first time. Studio looked unlike Day One of this class (ARC201) ever looked before!

We started outside, with team building activities and a name game. Then we formed the teams (i.e., learning groups) that we’ll use for the first five weeks of this semester.

Next, we conducted initial site analysis in a way that was much more engaging than normal. We held a “scavenger hunt” to identify qualities of our project site (the Hampton University Point) that have to do with water. The students managed to generate a much more interesting list of factors than I’ve ever been able to get them to achieve before; 63 about water alone!

For Friday, each team (of three students) has two assignments due.

Assignment 1 is to draw a plan of our project site to an architectural scale to fill an 18″x24″ sheet of paper.

This problem prompt is pretty specific (close-ended), but it still leaves a number of variables for students to consider and make choices about. I hope they’ll get a bit competitive and prove they have pride in their work! I asked the groups to follow a standard PBL format in starting work on this assignment. I asked them to figure out:

What is this assignment asking?
What will we need to know to do this?
What do we already know about this?
What will we need to learn/find out?
What resources will we need?
Who will do what and when?
How will we check for accuracy before it’s due?

Assignment 1 is more straightforward than you might expect for an architecture studio. However, it will lay groundwork for upcoming activities, and it will help me assess where the students are skills-wise and with regard to collaboration. The second assignment is much more open-ended.

Assignment 2 is to make a beautiful object that reveals the essence of water.

I asked the groups to start by watching one of the YouTube videos listed below, and assume that the astronaut/scientist had made the video in response to this assignment. I asked the students to consider the questions above (which are intended to foster “self-direcetd learning”) and to bring to our next studio meeting a final, beautiful object as well as at least three study models that investigating the “essence of water”. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

The students were more active, engaged, and enthusiastic about learning than is typical on Day One of this course and I have high hopes for this new method of teaching.

NASA: Amazing Experiments with Water in Zero Gravity – YouTube

NASA: Amazing Experiments with Water Balloons in … – YouTube

We started with activities…

..to build familiarity and collaboration.

And then we identified qualities of the site having to do with water.

We are analyzing the site we will use for our first design project.

And making objects that reveal the “essence of water” for our next class session.

July 21, 2013 by shannonchance

Reshaping a Roman Site

I’m wrapping up my week as “Scholar in Residence” for the University of Oregon’s study abroad program in Rome. It’s been a fun and informative learning experience.

I’m posting images from the studio review we had on Thursday, to give you an idea of what it’s like to be an architecture student or professor.

These students have completed second year of a five-year professional degree program (leading to the Bachelor’s of Architecture degree). They will start third year in the fall.

They’ve done some very nice design work so far in their three-credit architecture studio class in Rome. Their site is an embankment wall, built in the late 1800s to keep the Tiber River from flooding the city as it has done for centuries.

According to Wikipedia:

The Tiber was once known for its floods — the Campus Martius is a flood plain and would regularly flood to a depth of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in). The river is now confined between high stone embankments which were begun in 1876. Within the city, the riverbanks are lined by boulevards known as lungoteveri, streets “along the Tiber.”

Drawings by a student in Daisy’s class.

Amanda’s model of the existing site

Amanda’s new design…

…using the concept of frames.

Amanda presenting

Daisy commenting…

…and offering suggestions.

An analytic model of the existing site

Nicki presenting

Nick included a new bridge for access using bikes and wheelchairs…

…and she drew a helpful perspective of the new design.

A detail of Nicki’s site section

Around the table

Miranda explaining the research, precedents, and conceptual underpinning of her design.

Miranda’s model of the existing site

Miranda’s new plan

The model of Miranda’s proposed design

Getting feedback…

…from Daisy…

…and Lauren, and Shannon.

Laurel presented her ideas, too.

Laurel’s goals and objectives…

…helped her generate a new design…

…converting the existing site…

…into an urban beach.

July 18, 2013 by shannonchance

Roman Dreams-Come-True

...on my way to the Pantheon (my favorite building in the world!)

At the Pantheon

After sketching yesterday morning, I spent almost all of the day editing the article we hope to have published in the Journal of Engineering Education.

I was inspired by emails that Mike Murphy, Eddie Conlon, and I received from the editor of the book we’ve written a chapter for. He emailed us:

The chapter is a very timely, central and relevant chapter for Springer vol II. It would also have fitted nicely into vol I section I. The chapter has a clear, logical, and coherent structure, is well written and very interesting to read. In particular in clarifying the confusion surrounding the engineer and engineering technologist distinction the chapter provides new and useful insights. Moreover there is a good integration between theoretical positions mentioned in the introductory framing of the identity issue and the remaining part. Research problems and methods are clearly stated.

I nearly got clubbed by a Roman!

The chapter is accepted for publication in its present form. Congratulations.

and then the next day:

Your chapter is very good and there is absolutely no reason to change anything. My congratulations to you and your co-authors. Well done.

These messages were a dream come true! They helped keep me focused through many hours of editing yesterday.

At 4:30 PM, I headed out for a tour of the Villa Farnese, a sandwich and ice cream (I hadn’t eaten since breakfast), and a little stroll through the city.

I haven’t shown it here, but I strolled past the site I often use for projects with my Hampton University students. There’s been construction activity on the site for the past two years, because a parking garage was planned. For years, they’ve been excavating here (because there are Roman ruins under the ground everywhere here and they have to study and document them). The signage surrounding the site is now different from it was last summer and last September (when I last visited). I’m hoping this change means someone important decided against installing a parking garage; it would be a travesty to put such a structure on Via Gulia!

From Borromini’s clock tower at Piazza Orologio…

…I headed east for an ice cream at the Frigidarium (2 Euro for two flavors dipped in chocolate!)….

…and I headed onward toward Piazza Navona…

…where I nearly got clubbed by a Roman!

After Navona, I usually continue through the courtyard of San Ivo…

…on my way to the Pantheon (my favorite building in the world!)

July 16, 2013 by shannonchance

Drawing with Daisy

My former colleague at Hampton University, Daisy Williams, is teaching two different classes in Rome this summer in addition to being the director of University of Oregon’s study abroad program in the ancient city. One is architecture studio and the other is a drawing course, pictured here.

Tomorrow, I’ll join the drawing course for a morning outing… so I’d better hit the sack now!

Daisy’s drawing class in action.

The Library at Iowa State’s Rome center.

The entry stair at Iowa State’s Rome center, where Daisy’s studio and drawing courses are held.

May 7, 2013 by shannonchance

Student-Centered and Urban: Architectural Education at IST

The second stop of my Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturing visit was to the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). One of the organizers of the day, José Figueiredo, explained to me that IST “is the biggest and oldest engineering school in Portugal.”

Professor Teresa Heitor lined up all kinds of fascinating events for me. The 60 first year architecture students presented their work to me (in English!). Then, they came along as their professors gave me a tour of all the architecture studios. We got a glimpse of what these particular students will encounter in the coming years, as they progress through the five-year architecture program at IST.

Their architectural education will be structured very, very much like ours in the USA.

Their design assignments will be quite similar as well, although the projects students encounter here do tend to have more of an urban focus than most programs I’ve visited in the US. (I serve on architectural accrediting teams and have visited many different schools in the US through conferences as well as accreditation visits. I have to say, however, that my home institution–Hampton University–has done a noteworthy job over the past decade of integrating urbanism into the curriculum. Of that, I have been proud.)

At IST, I was particularly impressed with what I learned from the first year professors. They’re doing a great job overcoming what I see as a big weakness in architectural education today. So many teachers around the globe focus on teaching students to make “signature buildings” and “modernist masterpieces” that other architects will love.

These teachers, instead, endeavor to draw out their students’ unique interests and abilities. Unlike the many teachers who seemingly want to “wipe the slate clean”, these professors seek to help students draw from the wealth of experience and knowledge they bring to the first year design studio.