Grantee Spotlight
February 2012: Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF)
Left: The Center for Architecture Foundation worked with PS 150’s third grade class to help them realize a large scale model of an Eastern Woodland Indian longhouse. Right: Second grade students in Center for Architecture Foundation’s Learning By Design:NY residency present their model long house and wigwams to classmates and family. Photo: Tim Hayduk
In 2011, The Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) brought its Learning By Design: NY residency program to 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms at PS 150 Tribeca Learning Center, to study the Eastern Woodland Indians with a focus on their culture and their dwellings dating back 400 years. The project, supported by LMCC’s Creative Curricula program, brought together the skills and professional perspectives of a teaching architect with the experience of a classroom teacher, allowing both instructors to co-create and teach a rich and dynamic hands-on, project-based curriculum.
LBD:NY’s education methodology puts learning in the hands of students, accessing multiple intelligences, fostering creative thinking and problem solving and familiarizing students with careers and skills related to design. During the course of the semester, the PS 150 students engaged in a variety of art and artifact-making, writing, and other cross-curricular work to encourage students in a deep understanding of Native American life. The final project was a scale model of a native settlement that included long houses and wigwams, detailed representations of crops, food, and personal effects, surrounded by the natural environment in which the Eastern Woodland Indians built its community. The students presented their work to peers and family at the end of their program.
The Center for Architecture Foundation promotes public awareness and a broader appreciation of the important role architecture and design play in our daily lives. CFAF engages the general public in contemporary topics on the built environment to encourage design literacy.
For more information about CFAF, please visit www.cfafoundation.org.
Upcoming Events at the Center for Architecture Foundation:
FamilyDay@theCenter
Skyscrapers!
February 18, 2012
Build a Geodesic Dome
March 10, 2012
Walking Tour of Historic Brooklyn Heights
March 17, 2012
Design Your Own City Block
March 24, 2012
School Vacation Programs
Design Your Own Island (Grades 3 - 5)
February 21 – 23, 2012
Skyscrapers! (Grades 3-5)
March 27 – 29, April 10 – 12, 2012
Digital Design with Google Sketch-Up (Grades 6 - 9)
February 21 – 23, March 27 – 29, April 10 – 12, 2012
Summer@theCenter Open Houses
February 23, March 29, April 12, 2012
Summer@theCenter
June 18 – August 31, 2012
