Summer Class: Open Minds and Open Ended Experiences

The last year of the MiniMasters program has taught us a lot. Who was it that said "We know nothing about children."? Whoever it was knew what he/she was talking about. Maria and I have been surprised and amazed nearly every day of this project. What I've learned personally is that I think children are the best people in the world. They may also be the smartest. 

With that in mind, we decided to take a chance this July and work on an open-ended project with our one summer class. If children are the smartest people around, why not let them lead their learning and see what happens? 

We began with a loose idea. As the students would not be visiting the museum during our project, we wanted them to get to know the building and then design a 'gift' of art to put in the lobby. We thought this would make students more comfortable with the building and more excited to visit with their families at the end of the project.

The Akron Art Museum

The first hurdle to tackle was to translate the experience of being in the museum space without traveling there. After some brainstorming, Maria and I decided that the students would need to interact with the building materials to understand what the space must feel like. Our building is a quirky, beautiful contemporary space made mostly of concrete, glass and steel, in addition to the original brick facade that remains after our most recent renovation. 
 

 

The Akron Art Museum- main entrance

So, I took a trip to a home improvement store to pick up samples of those materials for the students to interact with. I found a sheet of clear glass mosaic tiles, large metal washers, small stone pavers and brick-like ceramic tiles (all with smooth, rounded edges-thankfully).

Armed with our building materials and many many laminated images of the interior and exterior of the museum, we headed off to our first visit with the summer class. We began the visit as we normally do (introducing ourselves, learning student names, etc.) and told the students we were visiting from the art museum. We had a talk about what an art museum is and asked if the students had ever visited. We then spread out the pictures of the building and let the students look for a couple of minutes.

Museum lobby and 'bridge'

The photos helped students begin to get a sense of what the museum looks like. To take it a step further, we asked what they thought it felt like. We also took guesses about what the building was made of. Students quickly guessed correctly that the building materials include glass, metal and stone (concrete). Finally, we brought out the building materials and asked students to take some time building with the glass, metal, concrete and brick. They quite enjoyed making buildings, people and even sandwiches.

Using the glass tiles as columns

Many students worked right on top of the museum photos

A glass and concrete sandwich. (We've left out the photos of children pretending to eat the materials)

This student made his own miniature version of the museum. Scroll up to see how accurate he was.

"Playing" with these materials was really about learning more about the museum. Students now understand what the building is made of, what those materials feel like and how the materials impact the feeling of the space. 

So, where is all of this going? Part two is coming up...