Putting it Together: Interior Design Goes Digital

Eaton's Interior Design class is using design skills to decorate spaces throughout the high school. With Eaton still in its first year, staff offices are still in the process of being decorated. This is a great opportunity for students to make an impact by contributing to the visual appeal of their campus while meeting the requirements of their education. Students understand the relevancy of their work when they make connections between the curriculum and other things around them. As part of the Interior Design curriculum, students learn design elements and design principles, which is about balance, unity, and harmony. These topics were previously taught in a lecture format, but this year it was transformed into a design blog project, yielding impressive results from students.

"Because Eaton is brand new, we were given the opportunity to design a room. We were able to take the elements and put them into an actual project that will stay tangible and on the wall forever." -Mrs. Broughton, Eaton Interior Design Teacher

Interior Design students have designed two Eaton offices so far. The first office was a different office at Eaton, their first real-world connection to interior design, with a customer (i.e., staff member), a budget, and a wonderfully designed office as the result. During that first project, students researched design techniques using other people's blog tutorials. Students took direction and inspiration from these tutorials, so a question came up: What if they had their own tutorial, rather than just using others, creating one for themselves? Hence, the second project, the focus of this article, was the opportunity for students to take the project even further. In addition to applying their design skills by decorating an office, each student created a blog tutorial for their individual design piece. 

Emily's Design: Ombre Wall Art

Emily's final product

"We put how we did it on the internet so everyone can see how to do it themselves." -Emily

Emily's Blog: embellish28.blogspot.com

Megan's Design: Floating Shelves

Megan's Blog: thingsnstuffmeg.blogspot.com

"I learned how to put something out there and be more professional about it. I've created blogs before, but now I'm more professional, and I know how to use technology better for school." -Megan

Megan's final product: Floating Shelves (shown with other items)

Taking it Even Further

Mrs. Broughton used a project rubric for assessing the blog posts, including the student's voice and the content specific to interior design. The goal was for each student to have such a high quality tutorial that they could add it to Pinterest to share with the world. They were successful, and Mrs. Broughton pinned the student products on Pinterest. The pins have since been shared with others in the Pinterest community. 

Emily’s pin for the wall art: pin.it/V1nsg9e 

Megan’s pin for the shelves: pin.it/kuw2Zpt

Moving Forward

Students are planning to design another Eaton office and will create more tutorials. Every time they improve, they will gain expertise. In the end, students will have many different tutorials in their blogs, which will be linked in their ePortoflios. Student learning improves over time when they are able to recognize exemplars within their own learning and share it with others, and this project does exactly that. Next time you visit Eaton High School, check out the Tech Room to see the students' design in person!

Designing an ER: A Medically Sound Project

We've all been to an emergency room at one time or another, either for ourselves or for someone else, and we all know what to expect: reception area, waiting room, medical facilities, etc.  But did you know that every last detail is painstakingly considered during the design of an ER, even down to the color of paint on the wall?  This is something that students at Byron Nelson High School recently discovered during their work on a project to design an emergency room from the ground up.

Students in the Academy of Biomedical Sciences (ABS) collaborated with students in the advanced Architecture class in order to create a 3D design of a an emergency room, taking into account all the medical and physical requirements that an ER needs to function.  The project began with the ABS students, who had to use their knowledge of medical sciences to plan an emergency room that would be streamlined and effective from a medical standpoint.  Using Google research tools, they figured out all of the necessary data, including measurements, medical hardware, furniture, facility necessities, etc.  "It was way more intricate than we were aware," said ABS student Matthew.  "Once we began researching we realized the level of detail was incredible."

In order to keep up with all the design ideas and collaborate with one another, one of the groups decided to use a Pinterest board as a tool.  ABS students Rasia told me that it "made it easier to see each other's thoughts and ideas; it helped us design the ER without having to meet all the time."  In addition to structural design, the group incorporated new technology advancements into their plans.  Breakthroughs such as facial recognition software and high tech wristbands for easier patient identification make for a better functioning ER, as shown in the group's Google Slides presentation:

Once the ABS students finished collecting data and design requirements, they sent the data along with basic sketches to the advanced architecture students.  These students then worked with the ABS group to construct a 3D computer model with their architecture software according to the specifications of the group.  Architecture students had to incorporate necessary changes to make the design more functional or to make it structurally sound.  Once the design was agreed upon, the 3D designs were rendered by modeling software.  These models, as well as the project in detail, can be seen on the architecture program's Standards Based Bulletin Board:

In the end, the project was a great success.  By utilizing useful tools like Google research, Pinterest, 3D modeling software, and Google Slides, groups were able to communicate and collaborate on a design for a newer, better emergency room. Students like Rasia walked away from this project with a greater appreciation not only for each other's classes, but also for emergency rooms and the planning that goes into creating one.  "With no limits to our innovations and designs I believe our team was able to execute to the best of our abilities... I was able to learn much more about an ER than I ever have, and I certainly have way more respect and appreciation into all the aspects relating to an ER and how they are made."