The Built Environment: Hands-On Education Activities

Here you can download printable versions of each session and view extra content like videos and photos. To view the sessions, you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have it, click here to download it. To view the videos, you'll need Adobe Flash Player. If you don't have it, click here to download it.

Session 1: Orientation

Parents and children participate in a program overview and voice their questions about and interest in The Built Environment topics. Next, students and parents work independently with program facilitators. While children draw a picture of a favorite building, parents learn about serving as coaches and supporting their children's learning. When parents and children reunite, they work together to write notes about the drawings. These annotated drawings become the first entry in the sketchbooks they will use throughout the program to document their experiences.

Session 2: Push and Pull: Be a Building (Compression)

Participants use their bodies to act out building shapes and understand the forces of push and pull, also known as tension and compression. They further explore compression by manipulating gelatin blocks. By looking at photographs of buildings in their neighborhood they begin to see how these concepts are applied to the real world.

Session 3: Push and Pull: Make a Tent (Tension)

Families experiment with the forces of push and pull (as they did in Session 2). Next, they make tent structures that illustrate tension and compression.

Session 4: Foundation and Structure

Participants build structures that they feel are strong and stable. They will test the strength of their structures in two different ways.

Session 5: Form and Function

Participants consider the beauty of architecture by exploring the relationship between form and function.

Session 6: Conclusion (Build a Community!)

Families tie together lessons learned throughout the program by building a mock community from the structures they have created in previous sessions. In addition, they complete their sketchbooks and reflect on the learning experiences they had throughout the sessions.


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