Hello all.. I have been asked to speak at a middle school career day, about what else, architecture. Does anyone have any suggestions about how I can explain the profession in an exciting relatable manner? I want to inspire them to consider architecture as an option for their futures, i just dont know where to start. Any suggestions are helpful.. thanks!
I showed young high schoolers slides of some of our profession's wackier buildings: Safdie's Habitat, Hejduk's Wall House, Alsop's OCAD, Morphosis, BIG. They're very fun and VERY accessible to a young mind - kids seem to have no problem accepting these buildings as "cool" whereas adults get all squinchy-cheeked and uncomfortable with them. I contrasted those images with typologically standard images of a house, a school building, a city hall, etc. to give the students an idea that things can be redefined.
Don't bore them with licensing requirements. Talk about the fun side.
Also, bring in some materials samples - most of them have never seen a sample of stone or extruded aluminum window section.
OH Donna right on, i agree on bringing material samples. I can remember the first time i saw and alum. mullion extrusion... totally blew me away. Material samples also make sense as they connect the tactile and the visual so strongly. ms_arch, if you could show an interesting image of a project along with a sample of what it is actually built of, that could be a really strong starting point for kids minds to wander... in a good way of course...
Its funny, even now, my interest is most commonly piqued by lunch n' learn lectures/reps when the material samples are busted out...
Ask them to raise their hands if they like Legos. Then ask those who also like Megablocks to put their hands down. The kids with their hands still up will be architects.
Contact me - lwaldrep@gmail.com - as I have plenty of materials to share --
I typically start with having them draw their house - no further instructions and show them the various drawings - plan, elevation, and section - that architects use.
Also, have them design something during your time.
As the creator of ARCHCareers.org, I second that as a resource.
I did three career days; two for high school age students and one for 3rd or 2nd grade students. Let me tell you something, you'd think it'd be easier talking to high school students than a room full of 8 year olds but, the inverse was true. The 2nd graders were not only easier but, more fun, more engaging and uniquely more thoughtful/creative than those bratty high school kids were ever going to be.
Know your audience, treat them like they want to be treated and not how mom. dad or teachers treat them, and you'll have a blast.
The AIA has a program, at least in my chapter, called Architecture In The Schools. It's a guide, not a great one but, it's a guide nonetheless.
For the 2nd graders all I did was talk about measurement in architecture, that was the theme of this lesson plan. I brought in some paper tape measures that I made, some cool little handouts about the history of measurement, an associate, she was great and helped me give the girls in the class the sense that; I can be an architect, and she brought a model of her house. I talked to the kids about the foot and the inch - the history or legend of each - then got them measuring their feet and fingers, trying to help them understand scale as it relates to their own bodies, by using the "tape measure" I brought them. It was a blast, they were all over the place, and I felt good.
you should bring an egg and a skillet and be like:
this is your brain (show the egg in you hand)
this is your brain on architecture (then break the egg in the skillet)
and hope it'll traumatize a few kids along the way.
I'm finding this to be an interesting thread ... also a troubling thread.
What's the responsible and ethical thing to do here?
Is it really appropriate to go into a presention like this with the specific intent of getting young people excited about a career in architecture?
How many times have we read on this forum posts by young graduates who wake up one day and realize that the reality of being an architect isn't even close to what they had in their mind when they entered college?
Mind you, I love the fact that I'm an architect and my own career's been pretty good so far. But, there's so much angst shared by so many young people in the profession today that it causes me to question how we really ought to approach a Career Day when we're asked to participate.
A "career day" in 8th grade sealed it for me - I spent the day at a landscape architect's office. All morning, they showed me rendered perspectives, sketches, computer models, and technical drawings of some of their projects. After lunch, we hopped in the car to look at the finished projects.
Very cool to see drawings become built projects...
stone, i hear you, but i am, when it comes to what i enjoy, a glass is full proposition. we all bitch about the profession, wear t-shirts to the Y, bitching about our profession but, at the end of the day - there's nothing i rather be doing.
I love dml's suggestion - if it's high schoolers, would be great to bring :
- concept drawing
- working drawing - 3 or 4 (plan, section/elevation + one detail)
- photos of built form, including a photo of the final detail
from one project. plus, a model!
I too love the scale / measurement exercises. I've done that with students before, and it always goes over well (and it's important!) It's really scalable (har har har) to different ages, as well.
One great part of that exercise is to poll the students first: "how big do you think your desk is? how about a door? a hallway? a room? a stair riser?" using different scales of comparison: how many desks end to end would make up the room, how many hands-widths make up a doorway, etcetera - and then have them guess feet / inches and see who gets closest!
I also like to teach about the length of a pace, about foot-length measurements, and then show how that relates to stair treads and risers. All of these elements are usually found in schools, and you can get them to examine their own environment, PLUS show how much our environment shapes our actions, and how much our bodies affect our environment. It's fun to watch them figure out how it's all linked!
Most students never encounter an architect or have ever heard about the profession. I feel very strongly that it is important to educate students not just about the profession, but about design in general - and this is an EXCELLENT opportunity to open some young eyes. I feel very strongly that a lot of the difficulties in our profession stem ultimately from a lack of understand of and appreciation for architecture on that part of our clients (who are the general public). The way to combat this is for design to have a presence in schools, as early as possible. One small step in that is to attend a career day. It's a great opportunity and it's important to make the most of it.
manta: I easily can support what you say, provided the purpose of Career Day is to educate the students about what architects do and how we can help society. I see a lot of value in that.
However, more often than not, these things turn into recruitment efforts, focusing mostly on the cool parts of a career in architecture and avoiding the stuff that drives us crazy. IMO, that lack of balance misleads the easily influenced.
Since I have yet to meet an architect that is 100% rah-rah, or could even be described as "overly optimistic", I sincerely doubt anyone would run into the kind of problem you describe.
yeah, and when they go to medical school, tell them they can stop be self loathing prigs that, feel the need to come to architecture sites and shit all over a profession they were too weak to make it in. [hint, hint]
stone, I hear you, but I also agree with manta. And frankly, at grade school level I don't think ANYone in ANY profession should be talking about the crap side of their job at a career day event. Would a doctor talk about having to employ full-time staff just to deal with Medicare billing, or a firefighter talk about how their retirement funds are being gutted by the City, or a hair salon owner about property taxes and absentee shampooers?
Reminds me of an Ike Reilly story about how kids in little league football these days have to have an extra stripe on their helmet if they weigh significantly more than their peers, the idea being that a smaller kid will be somehow warned to be extra cautious if some big husky kid is bearing down on him by checking the kid's stripes. As Reilly says: I guess the shit thrown at you the rest of your life isn't very well-marked.
No need to drill the magic out of kids too early. They'll figure it out in college themselves.
funny thing is, when i go to career days, i put down other professions, like doctors; i tell the kids, sure, you can make a ton of dough but, when the only jobs out there hiring are for proctologists, and you'll have your hands buried in someones ass, does it really matter how much they pay you??
Thank you everyone for your responses. It certainly has gotten my mind thinking. To respond to Stone, I understand where you are coming from, but Mantaray has hit it point on. These are middle school students and also minority students. I feel that this is my chance to expose them to someone of color in a profession that may never have crossed their mind. Bringing material samples is a great idea to get that tactile part of the presentation and help them really connect. I have only a week to prepare so I have a lot to think about! Thank you all again.
Michael Rogers, the current AIA Illinois has challenged the entire membership in the state to visit a school during 2010 and speak to a classroom, contributing to the educational development of students not just on the profession but on some general insight about the importance of education, developing a career, respect for positive things in life or whatever is most appropriate for children of their age.
Quite the challenge -- Our student AIAS chapter contacted three local high schools -- all welcomed the students to come and share the career of architecture.
ps.
Tell them that if they go to architecture college, most of them will end posting over thousands of useless comments in archinect like b3tadine[sutures].
YEAH! i'd rather be a practicing architect, than some lame engineer/med student/fake architect like Load...believe me, the grass is way greener on my side of the fence.
hey LL, it must be painful to be such a failure, please tell me what it's like. i have yet to experience such woeful ignorant and stupid people like you in my education as an architect.
May 17, 10 11:08 am ·
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Speaking at a Career Day
Hello all.. I have been asked to speak at a middle school career day, about what else, architecture. Does anyone have any suggestions about how I can explain the profession in an exciting relatable manner? I want to inspire them to consider architecture as an option for their futures, i just dont know where to start. Any suggestions are helpful.. thanks!
You might find it helpful to spend some time at this website: http://www.archcareers.org/
I showed young high schoolers slides of some of our profession's wackier buildings: Safdie's Habitat, Hejduk's Wall House, Alsop's OCAD, Morphosis, BIG. They're very fun and VERY accessible to a young mind - kids seem to have no problem accepting these buildings as "cool" whereas adults get all squinchy-cheeked and uncomfortable with them. I contrasted those images with typologically standard images of a house, a school building, a city hall, etc. to give the students an idea that things can be redefined.
Don't bore them with licensing requirements. Talk about the fun side.
Also, bring in some materials samples - most of them have never seen a sample of stone or extruded aluminum window section.
OH Donna right on, i agree on bringing material samples. I can remember the first time i saw and alum. mullion extrusion... totally blew me away. Material samples also make sense as they connect the tactile and the visual so strongly. ms_arch, if you could show an interesting image of a project along with a sample of what it is actually built of, that could be a really strong starting point for kids minds to wander... in a good way of course...
Its funny, even now, my interest is most commonly piqued by lunch n' learn lectures/reps when the material samples are busted out...
as an ice breaker, ask them what their favorite building is and they might repliy like a macdonalds or burger king joint.
Ask them to raise their hands if they like Legos. Then ask those who also like Megablocks to put their hands down. The kids with their hands still up will be architects.
It doesn't matter if they're in middle school or not– though you could phrase it in the past tense if they're a particularly scrappy crew.
bring a model!
Contact me - lwaldrep@gmail.com - as I have plenty of materials to share --
I typically start with having them draw their house - no further instructions and show them the various drawings - plan, elevation, and section - that architects use.
Also, have them design something during your time.
As the creator of ARCHCareers.org, I second that as a resource.
Dr. Architecture
I also second manta's suggestion - no one can resist a model!
I'll second Donna and manta. Don't bore.
I did three career days; two for high school age students and one for 3rd or 2nd grade students. Let me tell you something, you'd think it'd be easier talking to high school students than a room full of 8 year olds but, the inverse was true. The 2nd graders were not only easier but, more fun, more engaging and uniquely more thoughtful/creative than those bratty high school kids were ever going to be.
Know your audience, treat them like they want to be treated and not how mom. dad or teachers treat them, and you'll have a blast.
The AIA has a program, at least in my chapter, called Architecture In The Schools. It's a guide, not a great one but, it's a guide nonetheless.
For the 2nd graders all I did was talk about measurement in architecture, that was the theme of this lesson plan. I brought in some paper tape measures that I made, some cool little handouts about the history of measurement, an associate, she was great and helped me give the girls in the class the sense that; I can be an architect, and she brought a model of her house. I talked to the kids about the foot and the inch - the history or legend of each - then got them measuring their feet and fingers, trying to help them understand scale as it relates to their own bodies, by using the "tape measure" I brought them. It was a blast, they were all over the place, and I felt good.
you should bring an egg and a skillet and be like:
this is your brain (show the egg in you hand)
this is your brain on architecture (then break the egg in the skillet)
and hope it'll traumatize a few kids along the way.
I got into architecture because of the high school career day. I ended up working with the architect who was the speaker 5 yrs later.
I'm finding this to be an interesting thread ... also a troubling thread.
What's the responsible and ethical thing to do here?
Is it really appropriate to go into a presention like this with the specific intent of getting young people excited about a career in architecture?
How many times have we read on this forum posts by young graduates who wake up one day and realize that the reality of being an architect isn't even close to what they had in their mind when they entered college?
Mind you, I love the fact that I'm an architect and my own career's been pretty good so far. But, there's so much angst shared by so many young people in the profession today that it causes me to question how we really ought to approach a Career Day when we're asked to participate.
Anybody else see this dilemma in a similar light?
A "career day" in 8th grade sealed it for me - I spent the day at a landscape architect's office. All morning, they showed me rendered perspectives, sketches, computer models, and technical drawings of some of their projects. After lunch, we hopped in the car to look at the finished projects.
Very cool to see drawings become built projects...
stone, i hear you, but i am, when it comes to what i enjoy, a glass is full proposition. we all bitch about the profession, wear t-shirts to the Y, bitching about our profession but, at the end of the day - there's nothing i rather be doing.
I love dml's suggestion - if it's high schoolers, would be great to bring :
- concept drawing
- working drawing - 3 or 4 (plan, section/elevation + one detail)
- photos of built form, including a photo of the final detail
from one project. plus, a model!
I too love the scale / measurement exercises. I've done that with students before, and it always goes over well (and it's important!) It's really scalable (har har har) to different ages, as well.
One great part of that exercise is to poll the students first: "how big do you think your desk is? how about a door? a hallway? a room? a stair riser?" using different scales of comparison: how many desks end to end would make up the room, how many hands-widths make up a doorway, etcetera - and then have them guess feet / inches and see who gets closest!
I also like to teach about the length of a pace, about foot-length measurements, and then show how that relates to stair treads and risers. All of these elements are usually found in schools, and you can get them to examine their own environment, PLUS show how much our environment shapes our actions, and how much our bodies affect our environment. It's fun to watch them figure out how it's all linked!
Most students never encounter an architect or have ever heard about the profession. I feel very strongly that it is important to educate students not just about the profession, but about design in general - and this is an EXCELLENT opportunity to open some young eyes. I feel very strongly that a lot of the difficulties in our profession stem ultimately from a lack of understand of and appreciation for architecture on that part of our clients (who are the general public). The way to combat this is for design to have a presence in schools, as early as possible. One small step in that is to attend a career day. It's a great opportunity and it's important to make the most of it.
(to respond to stone)
manta: I easily can support what you say, provided the purpose of Career Day is to educate the students about what architects do and how we can help society. I see a lot of value in that.
However, more often than not, these things turn into recruitment efforts, focusing mostly on the cool parts of a career in architecture and avoiding the stuff that drives us crazy. IMO, that lack of balance misleads the easily influenced.
Since I have yet to meet an architect that is 100% rah-rah, or could even be described as "overly optimistic", I sincerely doubt anyone would run into the kind of problem you describe.
;-)
Tell them to go to medical school.
yeah, and when they go to medical school, tell them they can stop be self loathing prigs that, feel the need to come to architecture sites and shit all over a profession they were too weak to make it in. [hint, hint]
stone, I hear you, but I also agree with manta. And frankly, at grade school level I don't think ANYone in ANY profession should be talking about the crap side of their job at a career day event. Would a doctor talk about having to employ full-time staff just to deal with Medicare billing, or a firefighter talk about how their retirement funds are being gutted by the City, or a hair salon owner about property taxes and absentee shampooers?
Reminds me of an Ike Reilly story about how kids in little league football these days have to have an extra stripe on their helmet if they weigh significantly more than their peers, the idea being that a smaller kid will be somehow warned to be extra cautious if some big husky kid is bearing down on him by checking the kid's stripes. As Reilly says: I guess the shit thrown at you the rest of your life isn't very well-marked.
No need to drill the magic out of kids too early. They'll figure it out in college themselves.
funny thing is, when i go to career days, i put down other professions, like doctors; i tell the kids, sure, you can make a ton of dough but, when the only jobs out there hiring are for proctologists, and you'll have your hands buried in someones ass, does it really matter how much they pay you??
Thank you everyone for your responses. It certainly has gotten my mind thinking. To respond to Stone, I understand where you are coming from, but Mantaray has hit it point on. These are middle school students and also minority students. I feel that this is my chance to expose them to someone of color in a profession that may never have crossed their mind. Bringing material samples is a great idea to get that tactile part of the presentation and help them really connect. I have only a week to prepare so I have a lot to think about! Thank you all again.
ms_arch, where are you located? Just curious. My city's AIA is supposedly starting up a push to get architects to show up for local career days.
Michael Rogers, the current AIA Illinois has challenged the entire membership in the state to visit a school during 2010 and speak to a classroom, contributing to the educational development of students not just on the profession but on some general insight about the importance of education, developing a career, respect for positive things in life or whatever is most appropriate for children of their age.
Quite the challenge -- Our student AIAS chapter contacted three local high schools -- all welcomed the students to come and share the career of architecture.
Visit - www.ARCHCareers.org - for some resources.
keep it simple.
ps.
Tell them that if they go to architecture college, most of them will end posting over thousands of useless comments in archinect like b3tadine[sutures].
LOL @ LiveLoad... @Mantaray Im in NY
YEAH! i'd rather be a practicing architect, than some lame engineer/med student/fake architect like Load...believe me, the grass is way greener on my side of the fence.
hey LL, it must be painful to be such a failure, please tell me what it's like. i have yet to experience such woeful ignorant and stupid people like you in my education as an architect.
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