Saturday, SAVY Day 1 “If Walls Could Talk…” (3rd/4th)
Savy Parents-
Well, it’s extremely difficult to breeze through the entirety of the history of Architecture, but we did it! Okay, almost! We started the day by doing an exercise to allow students to realize that they know MUCH more about architecture than they realize. The activity is simply called ABC brainstorming, where the students must come up with anything related to architecture—tools, practices, famous structures—beginning with that letter of the alphabet. They did fantastically and almost got through the entire alphabet. It was exciting to see how much they already knew, from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower, to the importance of Geometry & Math, to types of rock used in buildings!
Before getting into Ancient Architecture, the students had to analyze structures across time and compare/contrast the differences. We then discussed how the presence of distinct architectural structures is a mark of the beginnings of civilizations worldwide and indicated a movement from hunter-gather societies to more complex divisions of labor, making building possible. The students then built various examples of ancient structures found at transitional points in history with KEVA planks—pyramids, labyrinths, and megaliths.
After lunch, we got into Classical Architecture and focused on the Greek Classical Orders of columns and Roman Arches. Please ask them if they remember the three primary columns! The students had to draw which column best represented them and why. They also got very creative with this and very funny. We moved on quickly to Ancient Rome, with a brief lesson on the properties of concrete in Roman structures as well as the prevalence and physics of the “arch”. The students were challenged to create arches with vanilla wafer cookies. I was SO impressed. The trick was to make a “keystone” of some kind by utilizing sandpaper to taper the wafer. Most figured this out by trial and error and analyzing images of Roman arches. See photos for their various attempts.
We did a very quick breeze through Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in the Medieval period, and had the help of one of Vanderbilt’s towers that we had a view of from the classroom. You might want to ask how Roman and Gothic arches differ, AND what the purpose of “flying buttresses” was in Gothic architecture. After this, we accomplished the highlight of the day—The Tournament of Domes! The students had to determine which famous dome they most wanted to visit based on selected readings and images, in a 3-round tournament. Students absolutely love learning through the use of these tournaments. They don’t even realize that they are 1) justifying their opinions with evidence and 2) using non-fiction text to glean information, and 3) getting a pretty hefty amount of content. It’s always exciting. The Taj Mahal was the winner!
I cannot wait until next Saturday! On Day 2, we will start the day with Modern architecture and skyscrapers, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and move quickly to architecture in literature and film. They will be working on quite a bit of creative content on Day 3—with a heavy emphasis on Art and Creative Writing to synthesize what they have learned.
Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Michele Pettis