One of the major purposes of this unit is to integrate architectural principles into the 9th grade math curriculum taught in one of the classes at The Sound School. The Sound School is an educational institution of the New Haven public school system. The school is designed to offer an alternative program to regular schooling. Our main focus is geared to teach aquaculture and agriculture technology.
Our students at The Sound School come to this school because they love a small school environment where Staff has not only an specific certification to teach their subject matter, but also have many different backgrounds and skills. Most of them have had other trainings in other careers. This makes this program a very unique school, where staff and students interact with a multicultural engagement of several professions.
As an architect and educator, I have always geared to create hands-on approach projects that would combine architecture and education. Developing a unit of this nature will give me the opportunity not only to use my knowledge as an architect, but also to integrate this knowledge into a regular educational curriculum, in this particular situation with a freshman math class of 15 students.
Also, a very important issue within this unit is to contribute to the solution of some of the educational and social problems faced by the New Haven Public Schools and its communities by creating activities that would enable students to become deeply involved and engaged in their school learning. Activities will also improve their basic math skills and help them excel in their scores on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT).
The unit is intended to be used during 3 phases broken down into several lessons during the last 3 months of the academic year. Also many of the activities in this unit will be project-based to create student involvement. The initial phase of this unit will introduce the principles of architecture, the second phase centers on a visit to a site, and the last phase of the unit will focus on building a small replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, located in New York City. The other 2 phases of the unit, the introduction and the visit to the Brooklyn Bridge, will be introduced to students and executed during the academic year.