 Architecture
Resource
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PROGRAMS
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Design Connections ©
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We cannot diminish
the importance
of a partnership
between those
with vision and
those with the
skill to make
that vision
a reality
Anna Sanko, ARC..
Executive Director..
Design Connection
is funded in part
by:
National Endowment
for the Arts
Connecticut
Commission on
Culture and Tourism
Elizabeth Carse
Foundation
Ensworth Charitable
Trust
George A. Long &
Grace L. Long
Foundation
Greater Hartford
Arts Council
Hartford Courant
Foundation
New Alliance
Bank Foundation
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Design Connections©
"The program was a success because the content was thought-provoking and extremely hands-on. Anna’s enthusiasm was contagious. She is energetic, flexible, and knows her subject. She and I designed a project to specifically meet my curriculum and engage students in active multidisciplinary and cooperative learning opportunities that focused on local history and familiar venues.”
Alan J. Plattus,
Professor Yale University School of Architecture and
Director Yale University Urban Design Workshop
“Teachers have been handed on a platter a model program of integrated curriculum based on the design arts which directly relates to our school curriculum”
R. Montanez-Pitre,
Principal,
Mary M. Hooker Elementary School
“Your work is important because it strengthens students’ learning of architecture, an under-represented category of the arts, and also because it helps students make an important connections among various disciplines in a real-world context. The work provides an interdisciplinary unit model and student work that corresponds directly and creatively to program goals outlines in the Connecticut State Department of Educations’ Arts Curriculum Frameworks for grades K-12. And, as with all your important projects they address a wide variety of community-oriented, arts and humanities outcomes, including:
- documenting and providing access to area cultural and educational resources;
- stregthening teaching and learning in schools;
- promoting researach and original scholarship, by scholars and designers as well as students; and,
- institutionalizing the humanities and arts in our schools and community.
Scott C. Shuler, Ph. D., Arts Consultant, State of Connecticut
"I believe that the interdisciplinary programs offered by the Architecture Resource Center provide an innovative approach to assist communities, youth, and their educators with hands-on experiences that will enhance their achievements by strengthening and advancing the teaching and learning in the humanities and arts. The collaborative, educational design programs of the ARC enable our children to grasp a deeper understanding of the world around them, demonstrating the vast connections that constitute the fabric of our lives, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our world. Understanding design and its influence on our lives is essential to observing, interpreting, and shaping the world around us.”
Monica Hampton,
Program Coordinator for Schools,
Smithsonian, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Program Description
Design Connections© is a full year design curriculum created by the Architecture Resource Center (ARC) for students in grades 3-12. Teachers engage students in units of study involving projects and activities centered in the students’ neighborhoods and community through an examination of local architecture and design and urban planning. The design projects involve site analysis and programming, brainstorming and concept development, drawing and model construction, team work, and written and oral presentation of ideas.
A system of weekly design lessons create the framework for the introduction and application of architecture and design concepts. Development of a design vocabulary, application of the the design process to problem solving, and the use of two and three dimensional methods of communication are established as linking elements among the disciplines. The student grade level determines the complexity of concepts and design problems as the designed world becomes the thematic foundation for all curriculum subjects.
Design Connections© seeks to minimize the separation between artistic and creative endeavors and classroom learning by integrating disparate bodies of knowledge with the disciplines of mathematics, science, social studies, and art and by using such knowledge in an applied format. Design education can be an integrated and natural part of all subject matter areas. Used as integrated learning approach, design is an enhancement to the curriculum. The benefits for this learning include:
- •motivating children and teachers;
- connecting classroom learning to the outside world;
- •integrating knowledge from many disciples;
- develop lifelong learning abilities and skills for productive employment;
- sharpening problem-solving skills; and,
- preparing young people to be responsible citizens in a technically advanced society.
Students deserve to have their educational needs met in the “regular” education program. The Design Connections program is built on a belief that designing the “regular” program appropriately with the needs of the students served in mind will significantly reduce the degree of school failure and/or disenfranchisement. Students will enter school destined for school success rather than remaining at-risk of school failure.
Design Connections training for both children and teachers includes:
- a philosophy of design and how it affects the environment
- representational drawing skills and exercises;
- interdisciplinary curriculum development;
- a design vocabulary built with two- and three-dimensional visual exercises;
- architectural conventions;
- model-building;
- history and symbolism in the environment;
- critical aesthetic decisions about the environment; and,
- the impact of architecture and design on the environment
Applications of Design Connections©:
- Week-long artist residency programs with Anna Sanko, Master Teacher Artist for the Connecticut Commission on Culture Tourism and the and ARC Executive Director. To apply for funding go to the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism Arts Presentation Grants Program. (click on Art then scroll down to Grant Forms and Guidelines) or call Susan Docker, CCT Senior Program Officer, at 860-256-2721
Application Deadline May, 2009
- A five year project in the New Haven Public School System that provided professional development for seventy-five third grade art and classroom teachers. Yearly program components included: six teacher training sessions, twelve ninety minute student workshops modeled by ARC consultants in participating classrooms, and a downtown walking tour facilitated by volunteer architects for all participants. Project led to publication of New Haven’s Cultural Landscape: its changing people and places, a state and national award winning program.
- A three year project at Mary Hooker, Martin Luther King, and Annie Fisher Elementary Schools was a prototype for an interdisciplinary, design education programs for schools in Hartford. The project led to development of The Hartford Connection, a humanities and art based curriculum for secondary school students. The publication s (student and teacher editions) are set for print during summer 2007.
- A three year project at Enlightenment School in Waterbury, an alternative education program for “at-risk” students in grades 6-12. Development of a “hands-on” art and design integrated curriculum and Master Artist program that connects classroom learning to the outside world.
Evaluation Comments
Students looked forward to working with Ms. Sanko in the classroom. Students do well with hands-on programs. They were eager to participate in individual and team activities. All artwork created by the students was exhibited in the halls and display cases throughout the year. Comments from student evaluation of the activities included:
“I liked it because it was fun and you got to work with your friends. I learned how to cooperate.”
“I learned something, it was not boring, boring, boring.”
“I liked it because we could build our ideas and make models to write about.”
“It was fun because we could create with markers and cardboard. I learned lots of ways to make models of my ideas.”
“Its was challenging and fun.”
“It is exciting to make all kinds of structures.”
“It was fun because we all had jobs to do and we all worked together to make beautiful stuff.”
“I love working on a team.”
“I loved it because it made me learn and made me know my community better.”
“I learned how to make different kinds of drawings to show my ideas.”
“I loved it because we could make our own creation.”
“It was cool to use colors and learn how to read maps.”
“It’s very fun to be creative and put things together.”
“It was difficult but I did it.”
“I liked talking about why we did things and how we might change things.”
“It was great fun figuring out how to solve the problems.”
“I learned lots about my city.”
“It was the best because I got to draw.”
“It was fun because everybody was involved.”
“It was good because we got to practice different ideas and I got better and better.”
“I loved it because I was successful!”
“It was great to cut and glue and draw my ideas.”
“I liked the projects because they helped us understand the concepts.”
“It was a real big experience, pretty excellent.”
“It was difficult and frustrating sometimes but fun too.”
Students became familiar with the concepts and tools of architecture and design. They learned how to communicate their ideas in two and three dimensions through drawing and mural and model-making. They worked individually and on teams to solve design problems. Each student brought her/his individual strengths and insights to the task at hand, thereby experiencing what it feels like to contribute to the accomplishments of the group. A sense of pride, self empowerment, and social responsibility permeated the air at times. Students generated ideas, solved design problems, communicated heir ideas, and worked together toward common goals that were community focused. Students learned that they are capable of learning and that they have the capacity to think on higher levels. This positively affected their self-esteem and motivation.
External Teacher Evaluation was conducted by Curriculum Research Evaluation Inc., who has a strong reputation as an independent evaluator on national and local evaluation studies for private business and industry, universities, pre K-12 school districts, and state and local government agencies.
Teachers expressed excitement over having the program in their classrooms and agreed that the program activities are aligned with improving student’s mathematics and reasoning skills. The workshops extend the established curriculum and reinforce skills tested on the CMT. Students have an opportunity to work in cooperative groups; to be creative; to develop communication skills; and , to develop ideas and communicate them. As one teacher summed it up “the program is innovative and challenging!”
Teacher comments included:
- “It demonstrated how students learn through manipulatives. The lessons were relative and the children could relate to them.”
- “Children need projects like these that enrich their education.”
- “The classes were very beneficial in that they supplemented, reinforces, and gave hands-on experiences to my fourth graders that were in our math books. The lessons were in line with their studies.”
- “Some of the projects were hard but good, challenging that allowed them to use their reasoning skills and cause effect situation.”
- “Great team strengthening skills were involved!”
- “Problem-solving strategies were abundant.”
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