Hastings Box City |
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Box City is an all-school interdisciplinary program in which children use the design process to build a scale model community; and communicate their ideas about community. It is based a program developed by CUBE, the Center for Understanding the Built Environment, and is funded by a grant from Lexington Education Foundation and the Hastings School’s ACT. The Box City program is being brought to Hastings by Learning By Design in Massachusetts, the K-12 education program of the Boston Society of Architects. It is one of many Architecture and Design programs offered by Learning By Design. (Visit Boston Society of Architects for more information.) Jan Ham, LBD:MA program director/master teacher, and master teacher Polly Carpenter, AIA, will lead the activities. Over the course of eleven days every Hastings student will discuss what makes a good town, build scale model citizens to inhabit their town, and then build scale models of public, commercial, residential, industrial, agricultural, and recreational places and spaces. The final model, complete with green space, rivers and roadways, based on the geography of a fictive Model City, one that the children would be willing to move to, will be set up in the school gym. The following day each grade will visit the model town to engage in educational activities such as mapping, writing and drawing. The public will be invited to view our Box City on Wednesday, October 22, 5:30 - 7:30PM. Teachers appreciate Box City’s wide-ranging curriculum connections. During the weeks the children will:
Children enjoy Box Cities because they are given the opportunity to express their ideas about their built and natural environments. Upon experiencing a Box City at her school, one girl, being interviewed for the local news, summed it all up quite well: “I learned that when people work together they can make something really great!” Parents can participate in Box City in many ways. To find out how, click here. Contact info:
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