Design High a Lens on Design Toward a National Academy of Environmental Design Fall 2008 in This Issue
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blueprintsVolume XXVI, No. 4 NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM Design is Education in this issue: Design High A Lens on Design TOWARD A NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN Fall 2008 in this issue... 2 6 10 12 14 16 18 Contents Design High Honor Award 2008 2 Profile of two well-established architecture and design high schools and 18 • A Salute to the Associated General Contractors of America the broad lessons they may offer to other schools considering design- • Thanks to Honor Award Supporters Design is Education based curricula. Roster of Recent Museum Contributors cover: The light-filled atrium at the recently completed Phelps This issue of Blueprints departs from the usual exhibition-oriented themes A Lens on Design 19 High School in Washington, D.C., to focus on the Museum’s education programs and related topics. Highlights 6 A behind-the-scenes look at the popular Investigating Where We Live program, Mystery Building designed by Fanning Howey. in which teens use photography to analyze and critique their surroundings. Courtesy Fanning Howey. 21 “Back to Shul Special” include articles exploring general developments in design-based education, opposite: Physics students Toward a National Academy of at the Charter High School a “focus” on the Museum’s acclaimed photography-based outreach program for Architecture and Design 10 Environmental Design (CHAD) in Philadelphia create for teens, and an interview with a leader of the effort to establish a new Michael Monti, executive director of the Association of Collegiate wooden, CO2-powered cars ! for a lesson in velocity. Schools of Architecture, discusses the efforts of a coalition of architecture Photo by Courtnay Tyus, National Academy to promote research and effective advocacy on and design organizations to establish a new National Academy. M Recycled Wood Crane Set courtesy CHAD. B architecture and design. Museum News N The Crane Set has everything your child needs 12 • Design Apprenticeship Program Wins Award to create his or her own building site. The set • Museum Welcomes its First Fellows p includes a fully-functioning crane, a hazard sign, • Bridge Basics Goes to Philadelphia warning cones and barriers, wheelbarrow, concrete from the executive director • Turner Prize Awarded to Charles H. Thornton o • Tenth Scully Prize Awarded to Robert A.M. Stern mixer, and two operators to run it all. The entire set is h made from recycled rubberwood and colored with You Are What You Teach s Development Notes non-toxic, water-based dyes. The Crane Set is 16 • New Trustee: Edward J. Newberry part of the PlanCity group of toys which are mong the most enthusiastic friends of the The value of design-based education is gaining broader acceptance. I • Clark Charitable Foundation Funds Museum Endowment designed to stimulate creative thinking ANational Building Museum are the parents recently attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Phelps High School • D.C. Government Supports Education Programming of children who have participated in our youth here in Washington, a former vocational school that has been • Donor Profile: The Discovery Channel and visualization while teaching children education programs. Through a variety of hands- reconceived as a comprehensive public school with a focus on how the world around them works. on activities, the Museum uses the design process architecture, construction, and engineering. In the past, it was com- Available in the Museum Shop and online at www.nbmshop.org. as a vehicle for teaching kids skills in problem- mon for school systems to treat vocational education as a discrete path, $55.80 Members / $62.00 Non-members solving, abstract thinking, and communication, distinct from academically oriented courses of study—a strategy that along with specific mathematical and scientific often marginalized vocational students. According to D.C. Public principles. I am frequently reminded of the transformative power of Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Phelps High School represents a our programming when I introduce myself to Washingtonians with new educational model in which academic and vocational tracks will children. For example, when I met Robert J. Lamb, executive director be co-mingled, thereby affording graduates more career options. And of the Friends of the National Zoo, he eagerly explained that his the design process is the foundation for this comprehensive curriculum. son’s experiences at the Museum while he was in high school and after college inspired him to study architecture and urban planning Not coincidentally, I ran into a former Museum staff member at in graduate school. Bob’s son is now an architect. the ribbon-cutting. Mike Hill, who previously served as our outreach programs coordinator, now works for Fanning Howey, Our education programs have reached hundreds of thousands of the architecture firm that designed Phelps High School. Mike’s youngsters, and while our goal is not to turn each one into an experience at the Museum served as perfect preparation for the work architect or engineer, we do expect all of them to emerge with a he is now doing. His career since leaving the Museum serves as a clearer understanding of the value of good design and the many ways reminder that education can be as valuable for the teacher as it is in which they can positively influence the world around them. We for the student. You are what you teach! believe that design education is an excellent platform for broader learning, and are actively expanding the reach of our popular programs such as Bridge Basics by making self-contained educational activity kits available to schools across the country. Chase W. Rynd President and Executive Director Fall 2008 blueprints 1 Design Education Within Reach In October 2005, the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) established A+DEN, the Architecture + Design Educa- tion Network, a collaborative association of organizations committed to promoting architecture and design educa- Design tion in grades K-12. Jennifer Massengarb, an education specialist at CAF, describes A+DEN as a resource for educators looking for information and design curricula. High “We are not asking teachers to do all the research or develop the lesson plans; instead, we are showing above: Students at DASH work with their teachers and mentors from local design firms to apply their architecture training to them how the design process can be used to teach core real-world design challenges. academic subjects like math, science, social sciences, Courtesy DASH. language arts, fine and visual arts. We want to help them do what they do, only better.” Organizations Design Appeal like A+DEN and design education teacher manuals like the National Building Museum’s Bridge Basics In Florida’s Miami-Dade County, DASH has provided an Program Kit and CAF’s Schoolyards to Skylines are integrated liberal and applied arts education to artistically helping to bring design education into the classroom. talented students since 1990. A public, magnet, design- focused high school—one of the oldest in the nation— The most compelling proof of design education’s DASH’s stated mission is “to educate talented students increased popularity is the growing number of U.S. high to become confident and innovative thinkers through schools offering a specialized education in architecture interdisciplinary challenges in the visual arts in prepara- and design. Two of the forerunners of this movement tion for college and a career in the design world.” In order are the Design and Architecture Senior High School to achieve this mission, DASH has created a learning by Johanna Weber (DASH) in Miami, Florida, and the Charter High environment with a professional atmosphere, where School for Architecture and Design (CHAD) in students are inspired to be active in their own education. Johanna Weber is the marketing and communications manager Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These high schools offer DASH calls this approach “Education by Design.” at the National Building Museum. design-centric curricula and programming and use the design process to teach across subjects. Last year, not only did 100 percent of seniors graduate, but all of them went on to college, with between 80 and 82 percent of those students entering design and art hat is the design process? At its core The design process is the programs. “To really complete our programs, the students it is a method for solving problems. cornerstone of the National Building have to go on to a four-year college,” says Dr. Stacey The design process includes identifying Museum’s youth education program. W Mancuso, principal of DASH. “We have had great and defining problems, gathering and analyzing The Museum has taught thousands of design-related success in the past few years with college admittance information, determining performance criteria, evaluat- school programs and has developed a self-contained and scholarships. Last year 118 seniors were accepted to ing and selecting appropriate solutions, generating alter- kit—Bridge Basics—that teachers can use to teach colleges and received $12.6 million in scholarships.” native solutions, implementing choices, and evaluating math and physics through design. The versatility outcomes. When used as a teaching methodology, the and flexibility of the design process seem to be This success has made DASH an elite educational design process deemphasizes the notion that there is contributing to its increased popularity as a vehicle option in the Miami-Dade area and has