High School Grade  Project 4 weeks

GoalBench Kick-Off Project!

Rafael B
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Content Expertise
Academic Mindset
Collaboration
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Purpose

Engage in an innovative project that merges your architectural interest with a tangible community benefit by designing and fabricating a bench that transforms into a soccer goal. This endeavor challenges you to apply design principles and problem-solving skills while working collaboratively with peers and local artisans. Through hands-on experience, you build a deeper understanding of how thoughtful architectural solutions can address real-world issues and enhance shared public spaces.

Learning goals

Enhance your metal and woodworking proficiency by engaging with community partners to master safe measurement, cutting, and assembly techniques. Apply architectural design principles to address real-world community challenges through innovative solutions. Foster collaboration and leadership skills by co-designing with peers and local artists, participating in shared decision-making and conflict resolution. Strengthen your academic mindset by critically reflecting on your project's impact and your role in the community, building a sense of belonging and self-efficacy.

Competencies
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.

Products

Collaborate closely with local artists to design and build a versatile park bench that seamlessly doubles as a soccer goal, perfectly blending artistic flair with functional engineering to enhance community spaces. Throughout the project, create detailed architectural design plans and prototypes, allowing for iterative feedback and improvements. By project completion, present both the final bench-soccer goal and a comprehensive portfolio showcasing design sketches, working processes, and collaborative efforts with the community partners.

Launch

Initiate your project with a 'Design Challenge Day', where you and your peers collaborate to brainstorm and sketch preliminary designs for the bench-soccer goal. Engage local artists for creative guidance, integrating both structural and aesthetic elements from the start. This collaborative kick-off session will set the tone for a dynamic, community-connected learning experience.

Exhibition

Create an 'Innovation Gallery Walk' where you present your bench-soccer goal alongside peers’ projects. Use this exhibition to share your reflections and the development of your design-thinking process. Invite attendees to engage in discussions about how your creative solution addresses community needs and incorporates architectural design principles, enhancing their understanding of your project’s real-world impact.

Copied from GoalBench & Fence: Kick-Off Project!