Architecture+and+Landscape+Design+Significance

Archi l::an s aRe Des,i,gn Significance V' 3-5 V' 6-8 I CuLture II Time, Continuity, and Change III PeopLe, PLaces, and Environments IV IndividuaL DeveLopment and Identity When a family has children, the lawn starts to change. First, there is the emergence of a sandbox, swing, and slide, and perhaps a fence. Next, there will be a variety of toys in the garage, the grass under trees will get thin, and maybe some sports equipment, such as a basketball hoop, will be set up. When the children are older, perhaps there will be a pool, a volleyball net, a backstop for baseball, or a soccer goal. All of these are dynamic ways in which the land is changed by the people who live in the house as the people and their needs change. Each of these changes resulted when the members of the family determined priorities for their lives and made choices about how they were going to live as a family and how they live in the house. As the members of a family realize that they have different interests and abilities, they work to change the environment in which the family lives by changing the way the land is used. Human-environment interaction is one of the five themes of geography, as is movement of ideas and goods (Byers, Gilligan, Golston, & Linville, 1999). Students use their observations of geography to help them interpret how people organize the space around them. Students see how people change the land to meet their needs. They see how new ideas come into the family, and the family members acquire new things to help them act out these ideas of what constitutes the good life or they replace old things that no longer help them enact their idea of a good life. As they observe geographic construction, students notice the changes that are occuring around them and the changes that have occurred across time. The shapes and arrangements of buildings, the establishment of public spaces, and the definition of private space are all socially constructed. • Find the repositories of local historical photo collections in the community by checking the library, historical society, and museum. • Look for streetscapes and images of neighborhoods. • IdentifY the structures that still exist in the historic photos. • Find multiple images of the same structure to show change across time. • Find some images of buildings that should have been saved that are now gone. • Look for maps, especially Sandborn Insurance maps, plat maps, and lithographs called bird's eye views for context and community perspectives. • Scan the photos into .jpeg files. • Organize the images in Microsoft (c) PowerPoint by chronology, moving east to west down main street, regions, neighborhoods, or other themes. • Photograph existing structures and street views comparable with the historic photos. • Once imported to Microsoft (c) PowerPoint, put these images on a split screen to compare them by then and now. • IdentifY each slide with a caption. People modifY their environment to meet their needs via the following means: farming, ranching, mining, mineral acquisition, water distribution, industry, commerce, transportation, or residential uses. All of these activities dramatically change the land but some uses are more permanent than others. Looking at old photos, it is amazing how large structures could be present just 100 years ago and vanish without a trace how large towns could shrink to small towns over a generation. Comparisons of contemporary and historical maps show the incredible twentieth-century growth of cities. Some uses of the land remain fairly consistent, for example, the site ofJericho has been continually occupied for several thousands of years. Other changes occur quickly across a generation or less as shown in the book The Little House (Burton, 1978) gas stations changed from service centers, to mini-marts, to fast food restaurants, or they even go out of business. Whether observed or prolonged, people change the landscape to meet their needs, and students can see these changes from collections of local photos showing the location in time and comparing the historical image to the present. One group of students created a slide program Connersville: Then and Now, in which they gathered and scanned historical photographs from their community and their local historical society. They went to the same site and took digital photos of the site 20, 50, 75, or 100 years later, and using PowerPoint, they displayed these images on split screens to contrast the changes over time. Some of the sites had not changed at all while others had changed dramatically. Students identified the changes and the continuity in their community as they interpreted the photographic evidence of multiple views of the same location. Students can create drawings of hypothetical gardens, including the arrangement of plantation outbuildings, after examining materia'1s featuring actua\ American co\onia\ hndscapes. 'The)' can a\so examine Western European cultural influences on the formal gardens of colonial North America. Encouraging students to create architectural drawings helps them see how people in colonial America integrated both the art and science of the Enlightenment into their lives. Fourth-grade students examine pictures of the gardens of colonial Virginia to determine what people valued when they planted the gardens. One picture shows a symmetrical Bryan garden with a brick path-central axis edged in boxwood, planted with ground cover, and surrounded by fruit trees. A second picture shows a dependency, such as a springhouse or privy, in a similar garden; a third illustration features the plans of Carter's Grove plantation house, gardens, and grounds. A fourth picture shows the grounds, outbuildings, drives, and gardens of Mount Vernon. In their garden drawings, younger students can show the use of decorative or produce-bearing plants. The students work in small groups to discuss their ideas and compare gardens from that era to those of the present. What overarching goals or principles guided the people who laid out these gardens? How did people use their gardens for recreation, entertainment, or communication of status? Through effective questioning, the teacher draws student attention to the symmetrical arrangement of the gardens and their well-ordered paths. They note the interaction between the garden and the dependencies and the similarities or differences between gardens designed for show and those designed for produce. They learn how the dependencies have a utilitarian purpose, yet they also fit into the layout of the plantation. Fifth-grade students examine how the dependencies form part of the working landscape around the plantation house. Using laminated tour maps, students examine the grounds, dependencies, and gardens of four different plantations: Gunston Hall, Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Popular Forest. Using an erasable marker, students label the job performed in each dependency; they check their work by consulting the answer key on the back of each map. Students evaluate the importance of each job by its proximity to the house or state reasons why an outbuilding would be located at a greater distance from the house. Students can evaluate what the location of the dependencies tells about the way people thought about work. Students create their own maps of gardens and outbuildings using drawing paper and colored pencils. Students write a description of their property, giving a rationale for the placement of their outbuildings. In their location of outbuildings, they can take into consideration historical accuracy and function as well as noise, sights, and odors. In their drawings, older students can include their reasons for placing features at specific locations and describe the interaction between aesthetics and function. They justifY their arrangement in terms of the Enlightenment ideals of symmetry, balance, and order. REFffiENCES AND RESOURCES Alibrandi, M., Beal, C., Thompson, A., & Wilson, A. (2000). Reconstructing a school's past using oral histories and GIS mapping. Social Education) 64(3), 134-140. Brinkley, M. K., & Chappell, G. W. (Contributor) (1996). Thegardens of Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Burton, V. L. (1978). The Little House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Byers, A., Gilligan, N., Golston, S., & Linville, R. (1999). Lesson 1: Mountains Matter. Social Education) 63( 5), 285-286. Domosh, M. (2000). Cultural patterns and processes in advanced placement human geography. Journal of Geography) 99(3--4), 111-119. Ducolon, C. K. (1999). Learning from the buildings around us. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 11(4), 27-3l. Gokay, M. (2004). Door to the future, understanding portals of ancient Seljuk colleges. International Journal of Art and Design Education) 23(1), 63-72. McMillan, E. P. (1998). Building the George Washington Bridge: A first grade experience. Social Education) 62(4),222-226. Morris, R. V. (2000). The history walk: Integrated multi-age learning. Gifted Child Today) 23( 4), 22-27,53. Morris, R. v., & Obenchain, K. M. (2001). Social studies standard on a university campus. Journal of the Illinois Council for the Social Studies) 61) 13-26. Osborne, B. S. (1998). Some thoughts on landscape: Is it a noun, a metaphor, or a verb? Canadian Social Studies) 32(3),93-97.