Excited for the future

We again had many kids show up, most of whom were returning from last week. I guess a little bribery goes a long way. On my way into the middle school I heard someone calling me and was surprised to see one of the kids from last semester. I asked her how she had been and if she knew the design club was still going on. I was stunned to hear that she had never heard of it at school. We had sent out numerous flyers and made announcements in the school, and yet many students were still unaware of the program. It sounds like the school isn’t doing their part in advertising.
Anyway, she was very thrilled to hear it was still going on and said she planned on attending everyday until the end. It just so happened to be that on the same day the landscape architect had come in to get the kids ideas and directly implements them into the school. All of the kids were extremely excited to see that they really were helping to design the school and that their artwork would be a permanent feature in their new school. They all listened intently as the architect brilliantly explained what her plans were thus far and what she needed their help with. (And in language that any kid could understand too!) The kids all came up with some beautiful and original ideas. They took this day very seriously and worked very hard to come up with the types of ideas that everyone would be happy with.
The girl from last semester was born in Mexico and really wanted to incorporate some of her heritage into the new school. (Many kids at Casey have a Hispanic background) She came up with two great ideas for this. One was recreating a smaller version of a Mayan temple that would also serve as a fountain. The other was to have a learning wall where there were different blocks for each country giving a little bit of information for each, and a nice picture. So far, every week just gets better and better. I’m excited to see what next week will bring!

Sam

This Week at Casey

The turn out for the Design club this week was encouraging and I hope that it will be carried on throughout the rest of our time there. The most influential and meaningful part of the day was when the students were looking online at what a green roof was, the benefits it provides and also what goes into creating a green roof. The student I was working with was genuinely interested in the website on green roofs and asked many questions about how one was built, what could be used in the construction, and how it would actually help out the building it was built upon. After the students looked at the green roof website and the photos students had taken the previous week, we tried to have them draw a model of what they would want Casey's green roof to embody. This was where we lost some of the student's attention and their interests turned to other activities. I think it would have been more productive and fun if actual objects and materials were brought in to help create an actual green roof. The students were not quite sure what to include in their model and perhaps more information prior to the drawings would have been beneficial.

Stevi

This Week at Casey & Columbine (4/2/08)

This week at Casey we built our ideal community with the students, it seemed to be a big hit. They all had great input into the design and throughout the process we incorporated sustainable design principles to help them understand the process as a whole. I also went to Columbine Elementary School and did a similar activity with second graders at this school. They were enthusiastic about working with me and the three other CU students. They had limited knowledge of sustainable principles in design, but they all had great ideas of how to make their city efficient. There was also a lecture that was relevant to our class taking place at CU. This week our class watched a lecture by Michael Dufflin. His work is centered in New England and focuses on shifting early education away from the No Child Left Behind strategy. His work promoted learning through programs that are focused outdoors and using methods that inspire real life application to classroom work. His lecture was a good example of how programs like the ones we are conducting at Casey and Columbine are popular and successful all over the country.

-Brett

Simple foods are better!

Wednesday at Casey, I saw how some kids function better with simplicity. It was good to work with different club members because of this. Some kids like to be told what they're going to be doing next and given guidance. It's a very big change than the go-getter type kids that I've worked with thus far. But, the result was just as impressive, if not more cause it was more of a solo act. Looking through my buddy's pictures was great because it was so simple. There wasn't deep thought put to "take pictures of what Boulder means to you." It was cut and dry, 'here are some pictures of nature, and my dad. That's what I like.' It was funny that the kids were saying that they wanted "simple" pizza rather than fancy stuff, because that was the lesson I learned from working with the kid I worked with: sometimes, simplicity is better!

As a side note, the Michael Duffin lecture did not seem to inspire any new thoughts with our club. It seemed like he was making a sales pitch rather than educating us on participatory planning. What he was saying seemed to contradict what I have learned while working with the  Casey kids. 

Chelsea

10 April 2008 

Week five April 10--landscape architecture

This week was a real treat for the kids in the design club. Most of the same students returned again this week so I think that we are becoming more successful in grabbing their attention. The landscape architect that is working on Casey for the new design came to talk to them about the design that they have come up with so far and to see if there were any suggestions on what they could add or do better. The architect was very helpful and had a way with kids that got them involved and interested in the design and I think this was probably the activity that got them the most excited. She had a variety of options the kids could work on and design themselves such as the climbing wall, the design and color of the soft material surrounding the big rock, and sidewalk designs of the 49th latitude. All of the kids took very different directions and had so many designs. I worked with the same student as last week and it still amazes me at the ideas he comes up with. He stressed an interest in taking his ideas and connecting them to the model he had created last week. I am really excited to see that we are making an impact not only on getting them involved in their school design, but also getting them to explore their creativity and know that they can have an effect within their community.

Brittany

Casey Design Club: Week 5

Week five at Casey, and things just continue to get better and better as our course draws closer to its conclusion. This week we again had a larger turnout of Casey Middle Schoolers, which helped immensely. The project for this week was divided, but in the end we chose to get the kids thinking in terms of sustainability in order to have them design part of the future Casey site. After the introduction into what we would be doing this week, we let the Casey students lead the way in designing parts of the new Casey landscape. Elements that were designed included outdoor rock climbing areas, the green roof, the community garden area, and others outside of the future Casey building. This activity seemed to really take hold, as many of the students enjoyed expressing their ideas through graphical means. There were a few minor bumps along the way, however, I feel that this weeks activity was a success, as many of the Casey students gave numerous examples of sustainable design in their works. Next week should be, again, another good week at Casey, as we are moving forward into SketchUp and also revisiting the models we made last week, adding finishing detail as necessary.

-Ian

Casey Design Club: Week 4

This week we got hands on with the casey students as they were asked to plan out or design their ideal community. Specifically, we instructed the kids on sustainable elements around communities and tried to get them thinking in that mindset for the project. We formed multiple groups and set out on designing our communities. There were some interesting ideas that came about, such as solar powered soccer posts, and duel or multi use fields that could contain both soccer, as well as football, and be used as a track/alternative field. It was interesting to see the strong tie between the students and the outdoors and recreational areas. In the William Shutkin lecture, he discussed that many young people tend to have a sense of place, or attachment to areas of the outdoors where they are able to engage in activities they are intersted in. I feel like this week at Casey went over alot smoother and with a greater, more positive outcome, than previous weeks. The six students we had all enjoyed designing their communities, and seemed to learn a little more about sustainable planning and basics from this activity. Next week looks promising also, as we are going to get more into design with the students.

Also this week was the first of our three sessions with Columbine Elementary School here in Boulder. Wednesday, we were able to work with a handful of elementary participants, with each ofthe four CU Students being paired with at least two little helpers. Our first project with Columbine was to create a model city, one in which there were both sustainable elements present as well as one that created a unique space, or sense of place for the people who live there. The students seemed really enthusiastic about working with us, and the model project went down as a success in the books. I'm eager to work again with this group, as many of the participants were already anxious for the next visit, when we can finish up our model communities.

-Ian

Week four April 3—sustainable community building

Our new efforts to attract participants to the after school program were very successful this week. We had six students this time and with the numbers we had from our class we were able to work either one-on-one or two of us to a kid. I feel as if we achieved so much more this week than in previous weeks and the kids seemed to be really into the whole project and excited to get started. The activity that we put together for the day was to use recyclable materials such as cereal boxes and plastic bottles to build their ideal town or community. The kids were very good at including ideas like big parks, efficient irrigation tunnels, and also how the streets worked to decrease vehicle transportation. I think the thing that surprised me the most was how vivid the image of this community was in their minds. When you asked them questions about what they were designing or if they wanted your help building something you tended to be more in the way. I sat back and just listened to the boy I worked with as he discussed and created what he saw in his mind taking no other designs or methods into account. Each took so much pride in their vision and each was very unique. I think this process of working with the kids is one of the first steps that one can take into incorporating a place based education into a curriculum. We listened to a lecture by Michael Duffin in which he discussed the benefits of a place based education. He talked about how this new education can change the culture of the classroom and how people look at learning. I think that small activities such as the ones that we planned have this hands on work that changes the way the students think. It might be difficult to plan, but the effects it has on how open the kids are and how much more they engage themselves when they work with the real world instead of hypothetical instances. I think bringing the curriculum closer to home for them rather than learning about the Amazon thousands of miles away allows them to be clearer in the impact they are capable of.

Brittany

Michael Duffin's Talk

I attended Michael Duffin's talk on place-based education on Thursday and have to tell you it wasn't what I expected. It pretty much started off as an open discussion about why we were there, our thoughts about place-based education, and what it's benefits are. It turned out being more of a Q and A session for people that were trying to implement place-based education rather than an actual presentation. I guess this is because this is such a new concept and it is just starting to implemented at the educational level so there is still allot to be learned. This really put things in perspective for me in how important what we are doing at Casey really is and how it will help students learn, connect them and the school with the community which will start transforming school culture, and make the environment more of an importance. We are lucky to be involved with starting a placed-based educational program such as our Casey after school design club and I hope that this will help spark acknowledgement, interested, and continuation for future types of education at Casey Middle School. I know that our after school program is just a start and definitely could have a stronger place-based educational focus but it is a learn process for not just the students but for us too. What I took from the talk is that this a going to be a long road and it is how future programs will build off of what we have started which will ultimately make place-based education a higher priority in the current educational system.

Ben

Creative Model Making

Today at Casey we built models of our ideal community using mostly recycled materials or things that we just had laying around the house. This turned out to be a good activity for the students which I think that they really enjoyed. I mean when you give some 6th graders a whole bunch of junk and a hot glue gun of course they are going to have a good time. Overall the students came up with some interesting ideas some of which actually had some ecological and sustainable features which was great. Specifically we had a wind turbine, a welcome sign which stated that this was a community that recycled, a whole bunch of solar panels, and a water power wheel. I think that if we were going to do an activity like this again things would go a little more smoothly if we had established a little more structure for the community before hand. I like that we left it open for the students to use their imagination but sometime a little guidance can go a long way and it could make it more of a learning experience which was focused on making a truly sustainable and ecological functioning community.

Ben

First Day at Columbine Elementary

I was part of the group that went to Columbine Elementary School today (April 8, 2008) and it turned out to be a great success.  The four CU students involved each worked with a group of kids who analyzed their idea of a great neighborhood and then we proceeded to design these ideal neighborhoods with the mostly recycled materials.  The kids had lots of energy and enthusiasm for their projects, and also to have the chance to be working on them with us as well.  I felt like this was a much needed boost, at least for me, because the sessions at Casey have been so lacking in participants and enthusiasm.  Though today's lesson may not have been as educational as we may have hoped (as the kids were more interested in doing their own things),  their enthusiasm to work on the projects definitely made the day feel much for successful.  

Alyssa

Michael Duffin and Casey

Last week was a new week in the Casey Design Club, with I believe six students this time, including one new student and several returning from previous times. We were glad to work with a larger number of students finally, and we all found the week to be a success, as opposed to the previous weeks. Thursday night, following the club meeting, I attended Michael Duffin’s lecture about place-based education. This speech happened to pertain very much to our class and its current activities, making it a relevant talk to attend. One of the major overriding themes that I felt permeated throughout his speech was one of social mobilization beginning with a small group of students, spreading outward and upward like wildfire. In his speech, Duffin explained about how numerous example groups that he was involved in started as a small group of young students learning some concepts, who then would spread the ideas out to other students at different levels, eventually branching out of the school completely. Likewise, Casey’s Design Club can be just like this, because the students in the club can learn all about sustainability in a fun way, while ingraining the knowledge in them. Through good habits and word of mouth, the students can help teach their family and friends, who can in turn spread the word further outward. Michael Duffin clearly believes in grassroots education, and with either place-based design or sustainability, a small group of students can educate the people around them.

~Austin~