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Objective: To establish what an architect is and does and to help students understand an architect's role in the design of the built environment. |
Activity:
Discuss and show the following:
- What is an architect?
- What are an architect's tools?
- Explain different types of architectural drawings and models.
- What is a symbol?
- Make name tags of an Indian name and symbol, which the students give themselves.
Vocabulary:
- architect
- plan
- elevation
- symbol
Materials:
- architectural drawings
- architectural model
- construction paper, pencils, and crayons for name tags
Comments:
The teacher's intention was to have the Architecture in Education Program
support her classroom study of Native Americans through the design of a
Native American Village. The class was enthusiastic about learning about
architects and the built environment, as well as the specific project.
The teaching team introduced the students to the basic principles of
architecture design and structure through examples and then had students
use these ideas in a hands-on building project. The class got off to a
good and energetic start.
Objective: To reinforce the architectural principles of plan, section and elevation discussed in the previous class and to introduce the Native American Village project.
Discuss the following:
- Plan, Section, and Elevation
Explain these terms by using a bell pepper. Cutting it in half horizontally so you can see the outer walls like the outer walls of a house and the inner walls like those in a house separating rooms. Dipping the cut pepper into paint and making a print demonstrates a plan of the pepper. Cut the pepper in half vertically and you can remove the face or elevation of the pepper and look inside at a section of the pepper.
- Present and discuss totem poles: types, meaning, symbol and symmetry.
- Each student wrote a story about something in their lives, which they could use to create a totem pole. Suggested ideas for their stories were: special event, special person, special season, animal, and symbol of self.
- Each student drew a picture of his/her story on index cards, as many as needed, to be slotted and stacked to create paper totem poles of the story.
Vocabulary:
- Section
- Totem Pole
- Symmetry
Materials:
- bell pepper, paint, paper
- images of totem poles
- index cards and crayons
Comments:
The students understood the basic architectural concepts of plan, section
and elevation well. Using the green pepper as a model simplified the
concepts. The totem pole project encouraged students to write a story
about a special event in their lives and introduced students to the Indian
plank house building project. Each student later turned the story into a
three-dimensional totem pole figure. The class was exciting and the
children were enthusiastic about the project, making the architecture
concepts easy to explain.
Objective: Students design and build their own totem poles.
Activity:- Concentrate the totem pole drawings on their story ideas.
- Construct totem poles.
Materials:
- index cards and crayons
Comments:
The totem pole project was successful. Having the children draw pictures
of their special event on index cards to create the totem poles helped
them learn about writing, using symbols, and symmetry. This was a great
exercise for discovering the creative abilities of the students. The
teaching team was not certain that the totem pole project would work, but
by making slits in the index cards and stacking them one on top of the
other, it did. The teacher hung the totem poles across the center of the
room for the students to refer to and enjoy.
Objective: Students learn about the living conditions and dwellings of the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast.
Discuss Indian dwellings and regional architecture:
- Show slides of dwellings.
- Ask students questions about an Indian dwelling:
How many people live in each house? Where do the people sleep, eat, and socialize? What are the different parts within the house and where are they located? - Describe and show what a plank house is by showing a labeled plan, elevation, and pictures.
- Talk about scale in respect to the plan and elevation drawings.
- Hand out floor plans of the plank house for the students to use as building templates for designing their own plank house.
- Each student draws a plan of an Indian plank house on white paper with crayons and begins building the platform, which is part of plank house, with construction paper.
Vocabulary:
- dwelling
- regional architecture
- plank house
- scale
Materials:
- slides of Native American Indian dwellings
- slides of a variety of dwelling types
- photocopies of plank house plans
- construction paper for platforms
Comments:
The students had some difficulty understanding the concepts of the Indian
plank house plan and scale. Having them first see the illustrated drawing
of the plan, section, and elevation and then having the students draw
their own plank house plan was a useful exercise. The students needed the
simplified plan drawing as a template to follow, but were creative in
designing and decorating their individual house plans. This exercise was
difficult to accomplish in the time for the session.
Objective: Students learn how a building stands up, including the basic concepts of structure and materials, through a building activity.
Discuss the following ideas:
- Structure of the plank house and how the building stands up.
- Talk about what a post and beam are.
- Have the students finish their plan drawings of the plank house.
- Students construct the structure of their individual plank houses (scale = 1:1/4.)
- Students decorate the walls of the individual houses with Indian symbols.
- Discuss materials used for the structure and decoration.
Vocabulary:
- structure
- post
- beam
- dwelling
- regional architecture
- plank house
Materials:
- images describing structure and materials
- structure of plank house:
posts = wood clothes pins,
beams = wood dowels,
base of house = cardboard and glue. - plan templates for the plank house construction
Comments:
The students readily grasped the concept of the plank house structure.
They were able to understand the different elements of the structure and
identify them as post and beam. Many students had difficulty building the
structure of their individual plank houses because the wood clothes pins,
dowels, and cardboard were hard for the second graders to handle. The
teaching team had to assist many of them.
Objective: Students learn the concept of structure, plan, and elevation through a building activity.
- Discuss the structure of the plank house and how the building stands up.
- Reinforce the elements of the structure and explain how to build the side and front elevations of the plank house.
- Students build the elevations of their individual plank houses using the cardboard templates and wood coffee stirrer strips.
- Discuss site planning in relation to the Indian villages of the Northwest Coast
Vocabulary:
- site plan
- front elevation
- side elevation
Materials:
- cardboard templates for elevations
- wood coffee stirrers used as planks
- glue
Homework:
Students will design and decorate the exterior and interior of their plank
house elevation during their art class. The designs will be made with
colored construction paper cut-outs and glued to their models.
Comments:
This activity was possible for the students to do themselves without much
assistance from the teaching team. After giving the children instruction
how to construct the plank house elevations, they followed directions and
copmpleted the activity.
Objective: Students understand the siting of the Indian plank house within its specific environment and context and learn about the other important buildings vital to the Indian village.
Activity:- Construct the site model on which the plank houses will be put.
- Reinforce the concept of siting one building in relation to another and siting a building in relation to the forest, the water, etc.
- Begin constructing other buildings that are part of the Indian village: ceremonial house, cemetary, smoke house, and board walk.
- Cut out trees for the forest around the village
Vocabulary:
- site
Materials:
- craft sticks, construction paper, and glue to contruct additional buildings
- foam core and cardboard for building the base site model
- cardboard and green and blue construction paper for making the trees in the surrounding forest.
- sand paper for sand on the water's edge
Homework:
Students will continue their designs and decoration of the exterior and
interior of their plank house elevations during art class.
Objective: Review students' understanding of the basic architectural concepts that they learned throughout the eight weeks.
- Finish building the site.
- Glue elevations to the plank house base.
- Make roofs for the houses out of cardboard.
- Place all buildings on the site.
- Discuss the entire project.
Comments:
The teacher had the students write in their journals describing what they
learned in each session. This reinforced the ideas and prepared students
for the next session.
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