ARCH 598X • FALL 2002 Not Offered Except as Arch 600 Independent Study   Architecture and Education Raising Public Awareness of the Designed Environment       Today's youth will build the communities of tomorrow whether or not they have developed design sensibilities. It is they who will make the political decisions and lifestyle choices that will shape the social, intellectual, emotional, and physical landscapes their children will inhabit. (Sharon E. Sutton, 2000)   >Click here for: Schedule >Click here for: Syllabus   Description While many professionals lament the need for more informed clients, nowhere in the professional education of architects, landscape architects, urban designers, or planners do students learn to increase public awareness of the designed environment. Unlike art and music education, which have long been integrated into curricula of primary and secondary schools, design education is rare. Consequently, children lack an understanding of design, both as a decision-making process that helps forge a democratic community and as an esthetic product that expresses a community's values and moral vision. Yet these children will grow up to make the personal and political choices that so profoundly affect the quality of the designed environment. This course breaks new ground in seeking to establish K-12 design education as a highly necessary aspect of professional practice--essential not only because it nurtures an informed citizenry but also because it makes the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and planning accessible as a career to all segments of the population. The course lays out a theoretical and methodological base that can arm planning and design students with the intellectual authority to engage children in imagining new, environmentally sustainable communities, while also enabling their growth as individuals. During the first four weeks, students participate in discussion sessions based on assigned readings and hands-on sessions based on a wide variety of resource materials. During the fifth through tenth weeks, when there are no scheduled class sessions, students (individually or in pairs) demonstrate what they have learned by designing and implementing a series of classroom activities in a school of their own choice. Through this hands-on application, students have an opportunity to kindle design awareness that might last a lifetime. During the last week of class, students present a critical assessment of the outcomes of their classroom activity to classmates. As a final assignment, students create a "portfolio" that records their own and their students' progress.   Course Goals This course will help students   Gain an overview of the theories of education that inform design education, Gain an overview of various methods of design education, Explore design as a vital component of civic consciousness, and Develop their own strategy for raising public awareness of the designed environment.   Course Requirements These include   Reading assigned literature and perusing resource materials, Participation in discussion and hands-on class sessions, Designing and implementing a mini design education activity, Presenting the outcomes of the activity to classmates, and Documenting course outcomes through a "portfolio."   Credits Three   Prerequisites Enrollment in any masters degree program or by permission of the instructor. Planning and design practitioners and K-12 teachers may enroll through the UW Extension Service   Class Times Discussion Session Tuesday 06:00 - 07:50 PM Hands-on Session Thursday 06:00 - 08:20 PM   Location 100 Gould Hall   Instructor Sutton ARCH 598X (SLN: 1310)