Category: Activities

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Luxury labels and Fast-fashion

Luxury labels and Fast-fashion

Alyssa Dana Adomaitis

Department of Business/College of Professional Studies

MKT 1246: Textiles

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are required to compare and contrast a garment made prior to the fast-fashion (1980) era and in the fast-fashion (2000) era. The dichotomy of quality between luxury (designer, pre-fast-fashion) labels and fast-fashion labels produce different aesthetic attributes yet both are viewed as fashion. The quality must be tangible for students to experiment in order to truly understand the underlying significance about luxurious fashion and fast-fashion. By identifying extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics in a garment, students will conduct an analysis of the detail physical features and functional aspects of the garment.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Fashion quality is important for apparel and textiles professionals to understand. It is difficult to teach considering the prominence of fast fashion retailers, such as H&M and Zara around the city and accesible to students. Given student’s lack of experience with quality textiles, formulating teaching/learning exercise that start with this knowledge is important. Building knowledge from existing knowledge (constructivism approach) to teach has been used in apparel and textiles courses (Yaoyuneyon & Thornton, 2011) and has been found to increase student motivation and learning. Apparel and textiles instructors have been particularly interested in constructivism in the form of problem-based learning by bringing in industry-based problems to fashion application courses (Gam and Bannin, 2011).

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Several steps will be taken to ensure the class will compare and contrast the garments in an appropraite manner. The first step is to introduce the two garments without labels to students so no extended inferences (judgements) can be made. The first garment will be a St. John’s knit (SJK), which was made prior to the availability fast-fashion (1980s). St. John’s Knits (SJK) are high-quality and fit well (Eng, 2013), currently retailing for approximately $795 – $1095 (Online shop, 2014). The second garment will be purchased at H&M, which is a retailer known for fashion forward garments but of low quality (Dowling, 2012), retailing for approximately $9.99 to $49.99 (Ladies Online, 2014). The garments, of St. John’s and H&M label, that will be compared by students will be similar in fabric (knits), style (top and skirt), and end use (professional setting). The analysis will have students detail physical features (that are tangible) and the aesthetic and functional aspects of each garment. For the second step, students will complete a quality analyses questionnaire with open-ended questions to prompt comparison, including questions, such as (a) Which of the garments’ textiles do you think is higher quality and why? In the third step, studentswill be asked to discuss their findings as a group consisting of two students before posting on Open-lab.

The last step, step four, the instructor will inform the students the era of each garment (pre/post-fast fashion) and the label information on each garment and check with their respective postings. The instructor will then introduce a mini-lecture on the topic of Fast Fashion. Subsequently, students will be prompted to discuss the impact of fast fashion on the quality of textiles and the fashion industry.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The preparation needed forthis teaching/learning exercise was to assess students’ existing knowledge in a pre-survey questionairre which included: 1) To identify as many physical and performance properties of textiles for apparel that come to mind (i.e., durability, elasticity, flexibility) as learned in class lecture and 2) How do you as a students classify garments prior to or after the development of fast fashion? The pre-activity survey will ask questions to address the second objective to compare and contrast previous knowledge qulaity garments and fast fashion and quality amongst each other to post in Open Lab (1) Definition of quality apparel and fast-fashion apparel, (2) Aside from appearance, what garment features most impact decisions to descibe it as designer, pre-fast-fashion or as fast-fashion garment

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Learning communities, Diversity and global learning (“difficult differences”)

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

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A Gothic Guide to Brooklyn: Gothic Spaces Presentation

A Gothic Guide to Brooklyn: Gothic Spaces Presentation

Laura Westengard

English/School of Arts and Sciences

Eng 3407 (Gothic Lit. and Visual Culture) https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/gothic-nyc/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students created a travel guide for visitors interested in finding the “Gothic” spaces in Downtown Brooklyn (and the surrounding neighborhoods). Each group found a space in Brooklyn that they thought exhibited some of the Gothic elements we discussed in class. Then they created a profile of that place that describes the Gothic elements, analyzes the space in terms of one of the theoretical concepts discussed in class, and connects the space to one of the assigned literary texts.

These profiles will be posted on OpenLab along with images and videos. It will become a “Gothic Guide to Brooklyn!”

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

This place-based activity was designed to get students to view local architecture as a kind of text that they could analyze in relation to course concepts. They learned to synthesize course materials, apply course concepts to subjects outside of class, perform written and verbal analysis, work collaboratively, and use the online platform to deliver this information with appropriate style.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

I introduced the assignment early in the semester and scaffolded some in class activities each week leading up to the presentation (approx. 10-15 minutes a week). As we discussed the assigned readings and course concepts, we kept a running list of Gothic terms and concepts on the course OpenLab site so students had a glossary with which to interpret their chosen location.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students need time to schedule out of class explorations of the neighborhood surrounding City Tech. I provide them with a handout that explains the requirements, and they also need some way to create images and/or videos of their site. It is fairly high-stakes (10% of the final grade).

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Wrriting-intensive projects/assignments, Place-Based Learning, Brooklyn Waterfront

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I use a worksheet on which each required item and its point value is listed. Next to that item, I included notes assessing the students’ work along with a score. This was not a VALUE rubric.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

The first time I assigned this activity, my class was too small to complete it in groups, so it had to become an individual activity. This was not ideal because one of the learning goals was to provide an opportunity for collaboration. The creation of the list of Gothic terms and concepts was collaborative, however, and we also collaborated as a whole class to create and design the OpenLab project. We had a conference-style presentation day in class in which students gave feedback on their classmates’ work. I am currently repeating the activity in a larger class as a group project, and I plan to have the current class add to the existing project site.

Students enjoyed the place-based aspect of the assignment, and they seemed enthusiastic about the creation of online travel-blog style profiles with images and videos. They were very creative!

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

Link to Spring 2016 Activity Handout: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/westengardeng3407sp2016/files/2015/01/Gothic-Spaces-Group-Presentation-Prompt-Eng-3407-S-16.pdf

Link to Completed Project Site from Spring 2015: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/gothic-nyc/

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Site Visit, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Site Visit, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Karen Goodlad, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/karengoodlad/

Department of Hospitality Management, School of Professional Studies

HMGT 1101, Perspectives of Hospitality Management, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/goodlad-hmgt1101-f14/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Engage in a site visit of the Brooklyn Bridge Park as well as the surrounding community and lead discussions about tourism on the Brooklyn Waterfront as it pertains to a particular area of tourism.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

A number of goals can be achieved through this place-based activity. Student Learning Outcomes
• Discuss scope of the hospitality and tourism industry
• Gather information from observation in regard to the hospitality industry from a local, national and global perspective
• Evaluate and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity is positioned early in the semester in order to provide an example of critical observation. But it can be conducted at any point in the semester. Weather is consideration.

An entire class session (2 ½ hours) is devoted to the place-based activity. Students meet at the designated location which is in walking distance to campus, consideration is given to ensure students coming from or going to other classes can do so without concern of being late. In addition to the actual day of visit, 10 minutes is dedicated during the prior class session and 5 minutes in the subsequent class session.

Outside of class it is expected that a student would spend 30-45 minutes in preparation and 15 minutes to reflect. The information gathered can be used to support future assignments.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Faculty should communicate with any industry partners that may be involved in the activity. I secure the date 4-6 weeks in advance and confirm 2 weeks and 1 week prior.

Students receive instruction about the subject specific prep they must do, and are asked to bring facts about tourism as well as the Brooklyn Waterfront in particular. They are also asked to learn about the industry partners that might be involved. In this case The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and Brooklyn Roasting Company. In addition, they are told how to find the meeting location and are asked to exchange phone numbers with at least two other classmates.

The activity is low stakes but is used as a support parts for two other written research projects.

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

First-year seminars and experiences, Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Place-Based Learning, Brooklyn Waterfront

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

A rubric is not used for this particular activity. Assessment is conducted through reflection.

This course is part of the Gen Ed Assessment initiative but other assignments are used (Information Literacy and Oral Communication).

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

The first time I used this activity was 2011 and it has been an important part of the course ever since. I feel that when teaching, especially first time freshman, it is valuable to model what you expect and use scaffolding techniques.

There are challenges in all assignments and activities, for this one in particular I have found that working with industry partners needs to be done in a diligent manner.

I usually change all my assignments and activities in a small way each time I teach them. In 2014, and then repeated in 2015, I shifted to having the students come prepared with historical facts about the Brooklyn Waterfront instead of having a representative from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy lead that activity. They seem to find similar facts to the professional representative and are more engaged in the process. The activity is structured in a way that can easily include the shifting development of the waterfront and changes in our student population from year to year and class to class.

Over and over again I find that this is the first time students are at the Brooklyn Bridge Park and are seriously considering what happens on the Brooklyn waterfront. They have expressed excitement about the actual location and meeting with industry professionals. Though the immediate learning opportunity is valuable I find that when students come to me 6 months or a year plus later and say “Remember when we went to the park? That was so cool. I brought my family there to show them all the things that happen there” that the time invested in preparing for and participating in the activity will have positive lasting effects. It is a great way to support critical observation.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

Site visit advice for students: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/site-visits/

Day of assignment: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/site-visits/brooklyn-bridge-park/

Student reflection: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/category/brooklyn-bridge-park-submissions/

Student reflection: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/category/brooklyn-bridge-park-submissions/

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Open Lab Food Experience Blogging Exercise

Open Lab Food Experience Blogging Exercise

Claire Stewart https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/cstewart/

Hosp. Management/ Professional Studies

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are asked to eat something from the geographic region which is highlighted the week they acted as chef. They then write about the new food and describe its taste, texture, color, smell, or any unusual properties. They must document this experience and post a photo or video of this item in its various stages and how it was acquired. Next students post (or create) a video clip of a traditional song or dance, festival or religious ceremony. Or they may craft a video of a walking tour they made of their trip to an ethnic neighborhood or grocery store. Posting comments on the work of others is also required.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

I would like to enlarge students’ view of their world, and for them to learn the differences and similarities of regional life. This is done by having the class investigate native foods, which pupils will find are inevitably tied to religion, geography and history. I also hope to develop the students’ vocabulary, and increase their ability to work in new environments with unfamiliar ingredients. The more terms, place names, and components that students are exposed to, the greater the chance that they will be able to draw conclusions about new concepts by finding similarities to what they have seen before. This assignment also works to nudge participants out of their comfort zone, asking them to try something that they may not otherwise have tasted or experienced.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Every student has a different time line. I ask that their post go up no more than one week after they have acted as chef. The brigade with the day that the student will be chef is established on Week 1. Students devote a lot of time creating their week’s chef report, so I make this assignment due the week after they have been chef. I feel this way they can have more fun with the assignment, as they are no longer nervous about their performance. This assignment is ideal because there is very little lecture time at all during class. This is a production class and dinner has to be done ready in order for the dining room to open.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This assignment is worth 10 points out of 100. I give specific instructions that students must cite their sources, and also get permission if using photos of others. Students investigate the culture of the region for which they were class chef. By the time this assignment is due, students have learned about this region, and are invested in what they come to consider “their” territory. Being chef for the day is a significant event for these students, so by tying in the assignment to this, I find students “buy in” to the activity with enthusiasm.

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Capstone courses and projects, Place-Based Learning

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I do use a rubric that includes whether the student worked within the time line, and if they cited sources. Also if they proofread and presented themselves as professional in their online work. I did get valuable information from the Living Lab assessment workshop. I ask the student to consider who the audience for the assignment is, and what the role of the presenter is.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This worked very well. I am repeating it in this year’s class. I also made a similar assignment in a different class and it was a true success.

This is a link to my Culinary Improvisation class, in which there was a weekly blogger.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/

Students take photos of their food anyway, so by creating an official class blogger I am expanding on something they already enjoy. I learned to make a cut-off date for comments because I found many students made all their comments only at the end of the semester. I now ask them to post a minimum prior to midterm, and not all on the same day or on the same topic. I would still like students to proofread their work more however. Students participated fully in this project, and I had no one not do so. I was pleased to see that classmates accompanied each other on their explorations, and I saw in their photos that they were voluntarily doing class work that was not required; they were doing it for fun. This project tries to harness students’ desire to surf the net and to see videos and make comments, and to do so in a structured environment with specific expectations.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

The link below is an example of a student blog entry from Culinary Improvisation
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/2015/03/

I posted this link after our class went to the Museum of Modern Art. Students had various tasks assigned while there; all in hopes of them finding links between art and food.
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/2015/03/19/museum-of-modern-art/

This is the link to the assignment
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/assignments/

This is a great example of student work
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/2014/09/28/a-slice-of-hungary/

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Visual Community Canvas on Open Lab and Presentation

Visual Community Canvas on Open Lab and Presentation

Mery Diaz https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/mdiaz/

Human Services/SPS

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/stories-of-service/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This activity is connected to the HUS 1101 term paper in which students identify an agency that they will learn more about. Students will explore the neighborhood around the agency site and visually document significant characteristics and neighborhood resources, needs, and how these impact resident quality of life. Student’s will post their visual community canvas and write about the significant characteristics of the agency’s community setting and how they relate to the work they do and the needs of the community. The canvas will be used in a student class presentation

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Students will be engaged community-based learning.
Students will communicate through writing, visual, and verbal means.
Students will encounter greater diversity of perspective and feedback.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

For this specific activity, students should expect to devote at approximately 1.5 hours exploring the neighborhood around the agency site. Students should expect to spend time outside of the classroom organizing, loading, and writing about their observations. The visual canvas is due along with the term paper and will be used during a 8 min. classroom presentation.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The instructor will need to discuss the term paper and project early in the semester. This will be a high stakes activity as the grade will be used as part of their overall term paper grade. Students should have ample time to identify an agency and visit the site a few weeks before the term paper and visual canvas are due. Students should have access to a camera. Students should have an Open Lab tutorial. The instructor can provide the tutorial in class or have students attend Open Lab workshops. Students should have access to phone or digital picture camera.

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Learning communities, Diversity and global learning (“difficult differences”), Service- or community-based learning

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

“Visual Canvas” post and students’ presentation will be assessed separately using this rubric: Visual Canvas rubrics Mery Diaz L4 2015

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity will be implemented in the Fall of 2015

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

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Term Paper Peer Review

Term Paper Peer Review

Mery Diaz https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/mdiaz/

Human Services/SPS

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/stories-of-service/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This peer-review activity is connected to the HUS 1101 term paper and is designed to strengthen student writing for the human services. In groups of four, students will provide and receive feedback on a draft of part 1 of their term paper. Each student will receive a copy of all group member drafts. With the use of an assessment rubric, each student will provide and receive verbal and written comments on content; clarity; evidence to support argument; and APA citations and references.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Students will strengthen writing skills.
Students will be engaged in active learning of the use of APA citation and references, and the use of peer-review journals to support their arguments.
Students will encounter greater diversity of perspective and feedback
Students will learn to the different stages of writing and refining their writing.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity will take place during the 5th session.
Instructors should expect to actively build preparation over the course of 3 sessions.
Instructors should expect to devote a portion of classroom time for prep and activity.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This is a low-stakes activity that will prepare students for a high-stakes assignment near the end of the semester.
This activity will require three sessions for students to be prepared to provide and receive feedback.
During session 2 of the semester, the instructor will devote a portion of the lecture to deliver instruction on peer-reviewed journals and book sources and APA citation and references.
During session 6, the instructor will devote time to include an in-class writing assignment where students will have brought 2 sources (other than the course textbook) with prior notice to use as they begin a first draft of the first section of their term paper.
The instructor should also discuss the term paper and rubric that will be used to assess student performance.
The peer-review will take place during the 4th session during a portion of class time. Prior to this session, students will have been prompted to bring 4 typed and double-spaced copies of their drafts with reference page. Members of the group will receive copies of rubric that they will use to review and provide feedback. The instructor should model the use of the rubric and how to provide productive and respectful feedback to peers. The group should provide a summary for the instructor on what each member will need to work on to strengthen their papers.

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Learning communities, Common intellectual experiences (core curriculum), Writing-intensive projects/assignments

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Rubric Grading Rubric Mery Diaz L4 2015 developed for term paper. Students will use this to self-assess and peer-review.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity will be implemented during the Fall 2015 semester

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

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Bustling Vacancy_ Mapping “behavioral” city patterns to produce architectural space

Bustling Vacancy_ Mapping “behavioral” city patterns to produce architectural space

Loukia Tsafoulia

Architectural Technology/Technology & Design

ARCH3609_Integrated Software in the Architectural Office https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/3609-integrated-software-in-the-architectural-office/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

In this course, I create a project with multiple components that incorporates research, evidence, reading and thinking critically, demands organization and presentation skills and requires the ability to work collaboratively. Students work in groups of 2 or 3 over a semester period to produce a highly conceptual design project that is generated following rules of grammar, logic and mathematics. The project brings together the Urban and the Architectural scales through a series of NYC data abstractions and the establishment of rules that will define the students’ design in the architectural scale.

The students are asked to come up with a design dictionary of 3 main architectural elements that serves as their “alphabet” for space creation. At the same time, each group focuses on developing a visual language to discuss, collect, measure, map and quantify NYC behaviors/patterns. The students will respond to the literal and symbolic notion of “Motus” in the city, and create mappings, diagrams, data visualizations and diaries. The projects will ultimately be based on the cartography of their architectural
elements in such a way that they relate to the city mapping analysis. The assembly of these elements will ultimately create a spatial 3d pattern which programmatically serves as an open air experiential space in an empty city lot.

The assigned project involves four process stages:
– “Alphabet” stage
The “Alphabet” stage involves the creation of a design dictionary of three basic architectural elements: stair, wall and atrium. These are the “bricks” students will be using to construct their space.

– “Data” stage
This stage involves the study of New York City’s five boroughs using data analysis in order to identify and map “behavioral” city patterns such as patterns of noise, circulation, population, income, crime rates, programmatic uses, urban density, energy consumption etc. The teams select a minimum of two datamaps and numeric tables supporting these maps and through research, observation and analysis they correlate them and create a series of abstractions.

– “Syntax” stage
During the “Syntax” stage the students extract rules out of the city patterns that will define in a later stage their design. Outcome of this phase is a series of 2d diagrams and graphs explaining the “behavior” of each of the maps and their diagrammatic interpretation in 3d.

– “Composition” stage
This stage is about composing all the material produced during the Alphabet, the Data and the Syntax phases. The students employ the generated rules in order to assemble their architectural elements’ studies. They put together selected wall, atrium and stair studies (a minimum of 2 studies) following the rules extracted from the city pattern research to create a project. The projects will not take data literally. They will rather depart from conventional data definitions and ask what is the city, what is data, and how can they be re-applied in an architectural scale.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

For this project the students are provided with guidelines for a better understanding of the integration of specialized software into all aspects of the architectural profession. The class simulates the design office space complexity so the students familiarize with its demands.
Students work in groups, demonstrating teamwork spirit, schedule and manage their time in collaboration with others, be professional with timeframes, enhance their speech and rhetoric skills. They have to weekly fill out timesheets learning how to be efficient with the hours spent per task.

The work environment demands that employees work together responsibly so learning in the classroom is initiated in a highly collaborative, interactive, and experiential way and the evaluation and feedback given in between them is encouraging, learning focused and transparent.

Students have to use data related to their city as their driver towards design. During this process students develop research, analytical and compositional skills. They conduct research related to NYC data using online resources such as https://nycopendata.socrata.com/ , http://nyc.pediacities.com/Nycpedia ,
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/ and learn how to properly cite sources. They gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources. Students present regularly throughout the semester to invited professionals from the architecture and urban design as well as curatorial fields. The presentations are in the form of printed boards 24”by36” (I provide them with the template) and oral presentation. Through publicly presenting their work students gain confidence and conscientiousness on their production, engage in constructive dialog with professionals and through this personalized experience increase their interest towards higher education levels.
Students curate all the work produced for the class including their group project in an individual book / portfolio. Main emphasis is given into the narrative of their design concepts and how they all tie together. Story telling is the center of their curation. Every book represents each author so each student should manifest his/her arguments through this book. Together with a printed version the students are also asked to use OpenLab, Archinect and Issuu as platforms to digitally create their eportfolio.

In the end of the semester, I showcase students work at my online digital platform PLB_Education (see link below) giving students the opportunity to be exhibited, to make their achievements visible not only to School’ ‘s community but also to the wider public. For the next semester I plan to also use OpenLab as an online platform in which students will post their blogs and discussions participating in a more interactive learning process. This project and its supportive materials (online archive, recordings etc) create a strong base for continuation past the course’s teaching period. Each subsequent class will build on previous semester classes’ work and therefore document how NYC data progressively alter.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity is a semester long project. I introduce the project on week #2 when I spend 30 minutes in class explaining the details, giving references and engaging on brief discussion with the students. I also post the project’s detailed description, resources, references and tutorials on Blackboard. For this coming semester I will also use the OpenLab platform for discussions and open feedback. From that point on my lectures and weekly assignments support with knowledge on integrated software the evolution of the project.
After Midterm I split the class in two sections: first part is a lecture or workshop on software and technical skills and the second part (60mnts) is organised as desk-critiques or open discussion on each team’s progress and concept.

Students are required to work in groups and meet once per week with their collaborator/s for two hours of brainstorming. Then they have to distribute the tasks between them in order to meet the weekly goals of the project as defined in the weekly assignment handouts. I expect students to devote 4 hours weekly over the course of a semester. They use a timesheet template created in google drive to control the time spent per task. Generally, I will allow some class time for students to meet and discuss and for me to check in with their groups, however, students are expected to devote time outside the classroom for gathering and analyzing their data and composing their design.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The students are given step by step all the software and theoretical support needed to develop the project’s multiple components in the form of weekly lectures and class discussions. So, the project is broken down to 10 weekly assignments/tasks outlined in the form of instructional handouts. I also post on Blackboard:
Tutorials and Class Recordings so I support them with possible software questions they may have outside the class hours.
– References and Resources.
– Base files for their convenience.

The students are given a template they have to follow and fill with required visuals and text description for their project’s presentation. These are boards 24” by 36” that they gather all the material needed to visualize their project (see project’s brief). Additionally, the whole class is sharing a google spreadsheet that serves as timesheets documenting hours spent per task as individuals and as groups for the project (see project’s brief).

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Undergraduate research, Capstone courses and projects, Place-Based Learning

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

This project is 50% of the overall grade. All the students have to weekly upload their work digitally on Blackboard following a given file name protocol. I have designed and posted on Blackboard a Rubric relevant to the project’s learning objectives with 5 scales (needs improvement, satisfactory, good quality, excellent quality). The class is broken down into four big presentations (1/4 pin up, Midterm Review, 3/4 pin up , Final Review). The overall grade for this project is outcome of their weekly submissions grade (40%) as well as their 4 main group presentations grade (60%) throughout the semester.

The performance criteria I asses for their group project presentations in my Rubric are based on oral communication:

Organization
– Ability to collaborate and present successfully as a group a highly sophisticated project.
– Professionality in presentation and meeting the given deadlines.
– Followed layout and visualization instructions for the project.

Quality of Supporting Material:
– Neatness and accuracy of the visuals.
– Quality of written description.
– Quality of city data analysis and data interpretation.
– Quality of final design as defined by the constraints set by the city data each team is analysing.

Delivery
– Quality of oral presentation. The presentation techniques, speech and posture as well as
coordination btw the group members are appropriate and appealing.
– Quality of plotted boards (nicely cut, pinned and in great resolution).

The performance criteria I asses for their weekly group project digital submissions are:
– followed instructions and submission on time
– file composition
– file neatness & accuracy,
– file line weights & resolution
– file presentation.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This is the second semester I assign this project and students have positively responded addressing it as one of the most motivating and challenging projects they have dealt with. It has been a motivator towards high quality of work and a very interactive and vivid class. I am very excited to implement all the knowledge obtained through the Living Lab Seminars related to the use of OpenLab and the incorporation of HEP and General Education SLO’s to the project’s brief. This assignment has many components so in order to create a very clear methodology for the students I have to provide them with very specific visualization steps, templates and class recordings. Directing all the steps of the project, creating an online platform to exhibit their work, creating timesheets, refining the rubrics for this project’s assessment and providing them in advance to the students has made my teaching overall more effective.

The main challenge is having the students work in groups and being able to manage their time accordingly. For that reason, I create an hierarchy similar to the office space where the working team reports to the project leader regularly through emails, timesheets and notes on each others projects shared with the whole class.

This project by nature relates not only to architectural, urban and preservation design oriented fields but also to Curatorial Fields and Social Sciences. Since this project is based on both qualitative and quantitative data analysis there could be a correlation with Math fields as well. Finally, the project focuses on developing a visual language to discuss, collect, measure, and quantify data. The students and create mappings, diagrams, data visualizations, diaries so I could imagine this project being part of Visual Arts Studies. In the future, I would like to further the project to better connect STEM fields with Liberal Arts.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

This is link shows the course’s OpenLab page with the courses syllabus and the weekly handouts, and the description for this project. This website is still under construction and will be used for the next
semester:

– https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/3609-integrated-software-in-the-architectural-office/

This link showcases students work from the previous semester:
– http://www.plbny.com/#!3609-bustling-vacancy/c1y5p

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