Every morning, one of our students presents a New York Times article and we talk about why it is relevant. Here are the articles (and presenter names) from this week: Wednesday, August 11 (Matt): Recycling Land for Green Energy Ideas Thursday, August 12 (Matt): Farmers Lean to Truce on Animals’ Close Quarters Friday, August 13 (Matt): Eat an Apple (Doctor’s Orders)

Every morning, the first item on our agenda is the Daily News Report. Matt chooses an article from the New York Times online that has relevance globally and in Bertie County. We print the article and hand it out to a student, to read that night and report on the next day. The report can be brief and casual, but should include a summary of the article, an opinion if it calls for it, and a statement about why the article is relevant here. While

Our lesson plan for yesterday and today built off of the basic “plan, section, elevation” principles we discussed on Monday. Specifically, each table pod was given 12 wooden cubes measuring 1 3/8″ x 1 3/8″ x 1 3/8″ each. They could configure the 12 cubes however they wanted to, but each cube had to have at least one face touching another cube’s face (in other words, no “floating cubes”). We also instated the rule that the cubes had to be arranged in a grid (in

Last week, we sketched. This week, we draft. Matt asked our students, “What is the difference between drawing and drafting?” Our students posited a few good guesses: “It’s for building things,” or “It’s what architects do.” Matt defined drafting in the simplest of terms: “Drafting is measured drawing.” The act of drafting is precise, technical construction of dimensioned drawings. “You don’t draw plans, you construct them,” Matt said. We had a quick introduction to plans, sections, and elevations last week with our Pepper Exercises, but

There’s nothing like a little dirt to get students excited. Our first workshop for Studio H was a sort of teaser for the type of projects we’ll do throughout the year. This two-day activity was a great introduction to design thinking, problem solving, and making. In my book, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, one of my favorite things in the Water category is a “recipe” for water filters you can make out of the most basic materials, designed by an Australian former ceramics

On the first day of class, we handed out sketchbooks to each of our students and said, “This is your Bible. Draw in it. Take notes in it. Take it everywhere you go. If it’s empty at the end of the semester, you’re in trouble. If you fill it up in three weeks, we will happily buy you a new one.” Most of our students have said, “I suck at drawing,” with a few exceptions, like Kerron, who loves drawing cartoon characters and put Peter

Because our projects will be focused on Bertie County as a whole community, we felt it was important to get the message out there early that our students are up to something special. Our slogan, “Design. Build. Transform.” is the first thing you see when you walk through the door of our HQ (shop and studio), so we decided it should also be one of the first things you see when entering Bertie County from Highway 17, coming up north from Williamston. The billboard is

We don’t have any pictures, but today was the first day of Studio H! Our students shuffled in at 8:30 in their khakis and polos, and sat at their new drafting desks in pods of four. Matt and I took a big deep breath and dove right in. We had planned on doing a workshop involving cow dung and clay, though we lost a half hour this morning to an all-school assembly, so we put it off until tomorrow. Instead, we went over all the

This past Saturday, five days before our first day, we invited all of our students and their families to an afternoon barbecue and “open house” tour of HQ. We know most of our students already, and even a few of their parents, but it was great to have them all in the same place at the same time, to answer any questions they might have, and to get to know them all better over a good burger. After scrambling to clean the shop and rid

Because our shop space is so raw, we wanted to at least provide some graphic cues that would inspire a design-activist process. “Design. Build. Transform.” has become our sort of unofficial motto and mission statement for Studio H: a three word imperative that encompasses the vision and goal of the program for students. We also have this phrase going up on a billboard on Highway 17 soon! Matt and I took to painting this slogan above the doorway and portal separating the studio and shop