Contact: Maridith Geuder
When a creative group of fifth graders teams up with university architecture students to design dream homes, the sky's the limit.
One youngster wants a house with its own mini-mall. Another wants an ice skating room. Still another has penciled in his "Dr. Pepper room."
The imaginary structures will never be built, but the youngsters will come away from the project with a new understanding of the built and natural environments, said Dean John McRae of the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University.
For four years, McRae has directed architecture students in a class project called "Environmental Education at the Elementary School Level." In the class that architecture majors take for academic credit, students develop and implement lessons and projects to teach fifth graders at Starkville's Rosa Stewart School about the built and the natural worlds around them.
A similar program is offered with the Jackson Public Schools through the architecture school's Jackson Community Design Center.
"Projects vary according to the students, but all are designed to build awareness and sensitivity to the environment," said McRae. Participating Starkville teachers include Barbara Burrell, Pam Williams, Yvonne Ellis, Jackie Rochelle, and McRae's wife, Sharon.
Students have learned about design in primitive cultures and built a teepee in the school's outdoor environmental area. Using cardboard, sticks and scraps of material, they've built models of sites they have studied. They've also created structures with wooden sticks.
As part of its curriculum, Rosa Stewart School also takes the entire fifth grade for a one-week field trip to Crow's Neck Environmental Center near Iuka. Architecture students build on this experience in the units they teach.
In the recent dream home project, fifth graders first had to do a site analysis to understand what impact their home would have on the natural site. They studied direction of the sun, wind direction and the views that would help determine where their home should be placed.
"We want them to be aware of environmental decisions they make," McRae explained. "Ultimately, everything we do is affected by our built environment."
Architecture students press fifth graders to answer questions about their designs: "Where will windows go? What would it be like to be in that room? Will the room have high ceilings? A lot of light? No light?"
Students begin to see their fantasy homes in a new way. "It's fun, and you learn something," says one fifth grader.
Teachers say the projects are a creative way for students to draw on what they're learning in math, writing, and social studies, among other areas.
"This is our fourth year in the project, and it's extremely beneficial," said teacher Pam Williams. "It opens new windows of understanding for our students."
McRae, who estimates the architecture school has worked with more than 1,000 children in Starkville and Jackson, says the project is valuable for all involved.
"It gives architecture students a way to express what they're learning," he said. "It also instills an awareness of environmental issues in young students while they learn. With all of the problems we face with the deterioration of our environment, it's important to educate the next generation."