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Architecture in the Schools Week- May 7-11, 2007

The AIA Minnesota Architecture in the Schools Committee is offering a special program for fifth-grade classrooms in May 2007. This year’s project is part of a national celebration of AIA national’s 150-year anniversary. The committee has a goal of coordinating 150 architects with Minnesota schools.

The program workbook, “Spaces + Places: Everyday Landmarks,” will introduce students to the 10 Principles of Livable Communities (an AIA initiative) and guide them through an hour-long workbook full of hands-on activities. At the end of the project, each student will have designed a landmark for his or her community or school and will get to keep their workbooks, compliments of AIA Minnesota and AIA national.

Teachers, sign up your classroom:
Sign-up has been closed.

Architects
If you are interested in participating in Architecture in the Schools Week, please contact Stephanie Pelzer at 612-338-6763 or pelzer@aia-mn.org.
Meeting Date: 2nd Thursday of the month at 4pm

Work with teachers and students to bring architectural ideas and concepts to schools as a committee member and/or speaker. As a committee member, get involved in developing a classroom presentation kit, the DoodleOpolis curriculum, and responding to requests from schools and organizations including matching up speakers to fill specific needs. Speakers enjoy the rewarding experience of sharing architectural concepts and ideas with teachers and students.

Chair: Marie Parish, Assoc. AIA marie@foundationarch.com
AIA MN Staff Liaison: Stephanie Pelzer pelzer@aia-mn.org

The Architecture in the Schools Committee fits into AIA Minnesota's strategic goals of Information and Knowledge Delivery, External Dialogue (with the public), Advocacy and Value. Our mission statement sums up the activities of the Architecture in the Schools committee: "To equip architects and educators with the tools needed to introduce the concepts of architecture to students of all ages."

While we are currently structured as an executive committee, meeting once a month, we encourage members to attend meetings or to work on many of our independent projects as listed below.

Architecture in the Schools Committee Projects
“Being An Architect” - a flyer for middle school children and high school-aged young adults on architecture and what it means to be an architect. If you are an architect planning to visit a classroom or a teacher looking for resources you may request color copies by calling AIA Minnesota.

Architecture Presentation Guide - a list of resources available for architects to use in presentations to classrooms, including the World Architecture presentation described below. When architects are asked to present to a class, they often call the AIA Minnesota office seeking resources, which are currently quite limited. Our committee decided to fill that need by compiling our architectural classroom activities into a collection that AIA members can borrow when they are asked to speak - from slide shows to hands-on activities, ranging from one class period to several.

DoodleOpolis - Adventures in Urban Architecture - a curricula that can be geared towards 5th through 8th grade students. The two components of DoodleOpolis include Cityscape, which introduces young students to concepts of design and architecture, such as scale, proportion and detail; and Puzzles of the Past: Urban History, which introduces concepts of urban planning and asks questions about why there are cities, helping students to understand how cities evolve.

World Architecture - great buildings of the world, from pyramids to present day; a PowerPoint presentation - Since February 2003, we have been working in partnership with the University of Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). The World Architecture presentation is part of the Architecture Presentation Guide, and helps architects in speaking to youth about architecture.

If you are interested in joining our group, helping to develop any of our teaching resources, or sharing your architectural experience with young students, please contact David Little David.Little@perkinswill.com, Marie Parish, AIS marie@foundationarch.com, or Stephanie Pelzer, our staff liaison at AIA Minnesota at pelzer@aia-mn.org.

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