Franklin High School Outdoor Classroom

Narratives

The Outdoor Classroom at Franklin High School

The ShareDesign method entails the education of both the architect and the community, allowing the architect to become a better designer for and with the community. Through the integrating of interactive sessions, the architect and the community create a transfer of knowledge and community values in a diverse way allowing for the knowledge to be worked with and understood as they are reflected in the project. The inputs of the community do not necessarily find their way directly inserted, rather because their input and sharing of knowledge comes in a variety of forms, their solutions are not so much adopted as they are used to make investigations into the design. By sharing architectural knowledge as it relates in the interactive sessions, the community can have a better grasp of the potentials of the project and have the opportunity to provide input in areas that would otherwise be assumed by the architect. The architect, trained in design, retains the responsibility and the capacities to transform the shared knowledge into a design. The project is community inspired and the design is driven by the involvement of both the architect and the community.

The Outdoor Classrooms at the school is a project which used the ShareDesign method to develop and design the project. Through a process which engages the high school community of students, faculty, staff, and families in design through construction, a completed outdoor classroom will be built while simultaneously creating an opportunity for students to become more involved in the shaping of their education. The space created will ultimately be by and for students - they will have a greater sense of ownership of the new facilities, and although future generations did not directly build these new spaces, it is most likely that the ideals of the students involved in the process will be universal enough in context to transcend to future generations. The project is currently in the Construction Documentation phase and we are applying for funding through various sources including grants and the City of Los Angeles District Beautification fund.

The classroom will be situated on a clearing of land available on the Northern side of the Women’s Gymnasium building. The site is unique to the campus in that it is well shaded, quiet and serene. Designed by the students of Franklin, the Outdoor Classroom will be a series of interweaving forms that cascade from the walls of the Women’s Gymnasium to form seating areas. The spaces designed will accomodate for 2 classrooms. The larger portion of the space accomodates up to 40 students, the smaller space for 25 students. Both spaces have been designed to both support lecture and interactive group work.

The space can be used as a natural learning environment for Science education and the exemplory application of Mathetmatic skills. Social science and language studies can benefit through the use of the facility while teaching material which relates to natural studies as well as an alternative and beneficial venue to the usual enclosed and artificial classroom environment typical to a large urban school. The space will also be used by school groups and the local community for gatherings, cultural presentation and meetings.

The design was developed through several months of design workshops with the students, faculty and administration of the school. The process specific to the development is documented in an 8 minute video presentation available on DVD by request (the DVD can be sent to the committee via priority mail).

Taking Education to Another Level (written by Mollie Page)

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom described a taxonomy of learning and education development. Within this pyramid-type scheme there levels of thinking skills. With the lowest level, the type of question and education focuses primarily upon Knowledge, Comprehension and Application. The higher level of education and learning focuses upon development of Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. The large issue in education within our schools is that the education standards that are taught to students are knowledge based and do not go further to provide opportunities for higher levels of education and learning. With the Outdoor Classroom Project using the ShareDesign method of participatory design, we have asked the students to develop the knowledge they have learned, to apply the information in the design of the project. By actively designing the outdoor classroom, the students were able to develop higher order thinking skills.
The exemplary idea behind this project that enhances learning has been the process by which this project has developed. Through the design workshops and in being actively involved in the design process, the students are using higher order learning - something that is not typically available through most standards based education systems. The students integrated what they learned from other classes into a real life learning situation. For example, from math education they applied knowledge of geometry, and spatial analysis. From their science education they applied knowledge and learned about materials, how various parts work together in the physical world, analysis of impacts of materials on the environment and application of sustainability education. From the social science education, the students were able to develop skills in dealing with others, learning the perspectives of educators, thinking from other people’s perspectives and understanding the context from which the situation will be judged.
Through the project’s development, the students learned collaboration and group work skills, improving communication skills on tact for critical analysis and both offering and applying constructive criticism. By having the students work with the architect, through the ShareDesign method, the students learned to support and justify their responses during group work and collaboration environments, learning how to work with other people of a variety of social roles. The students learned the life skills of having to change their dialogue to fit the situation with whom they’ve been speaking with. The students presented the project, throughout its development, to persons of varying backgrounds and professional levels, gaining the skills to make a professional presentation explaining and defending the project in a professional and respectful manner.
The resulting design of the Outdoor Classroom is significant in clearly showing the design team’s ability to develop a space through a collaborative learning effort. With guidance of the acting Architect, the students took the problem of classroom size, big vs. small classrooms as they varied with subject, and created two classrooms within one space. The design team learned to deal with issues of their environment, both within the school and in relation to the local community. For example, in dealing with the school’s problems with tagging, the design team chose to use a surface treatment of glazed tile which is resistant to most forms of tagging. The classroom, when completed, will act as a facility that can be reserved by instructors of all subjects. The sciences can use the facility as an active environmental classroom for biological observation and data collection. Social sciences and language education can use the space in discussion of naturalist writers and as a better space for reading, conducting classes and presenting projects.