Day 11: Young Architects

Today's  post in our March series about making is from Create Make Learn alumni, Jenny Jacobson.  Jenny is an art teacher at Swanton Elementary who is also actively engaged in Vermont Art Teachers Association.   As you can see from previous posts,  Jenny  is also an active member of our Create Make Learn community and actively shares HOW her and her students make.

Young Architects! By Jenny Jacobson

One of my highlighted Maker Projects this school year, involved my fifth graders at Swanton Elementary School diving into the world of architecture. They designed and created models of buildings for clients based off of the Design Thinking model!

First, Students randomly picked a client (i.e. chef, rock star, astronaut, farmer), a specific need of their client (i.e. perhaps their client had a family member in a wheelchair or they were requesting lots of natural sunlight) and lastly, students chose a “material” they needed to incorporate into their design (i.e. pipe cleaner, spring, feather, shell, etc.). Students designed their buildings in their sketchbook, including exterior space, layout and multiple floors.

Once the sketch is complete, they used thin cardboard, exacto knives, and paper tape to create a 3D model of their creation. Paper tape is a handy material. It is lightweight and has adhesive material on one side. It took several classes to complete models.

After completion, students share with one another what they liked about the project and what were their challenges.