This is a short documentary I made about a group of adolescents working with me to collaboratively build a huge art installation of an abandoned space station in the forests of New Hampshire. Students worked in teams, learning deeper social emotional and collaborative skills as they fabricated a huge structure using real tools and construction documents. In addition to their collaborative work, students sculpted and painted individual artworks to reflect their own interests and displayed them inside the structure.
In this project, I helped lead a group of approximately 100 adolescents as they collaborated with 2 young european architects to construct a sculptural 2-ton boat in the forests of New Hampshire. The boat is powered by a “human hamster wheel” that propels paddles, as well as bicycle and hand crank paddle mechanisms. It was a tremendously moving experience that taught students valuable design skills as well as social emotional skills in cooperation and leadership.
This video shows some architecture and urban planning projects created by my middle school students during the height of the 2020 pandemic in New York City. They were tasked with creatively re-inventing and re-designing the neighborhood of Tribeca, where their school was located. Their goals included analyzing the problems with existing buildings, improving accessibility for people of different economic backgrounds, and lessening the negative environmental impact of urban architecture.
This is a short video displaying a 3D-printed fish tank my elementary-age students made at the Portfolio School in New York City. We were challenged to design an artificial reef that would be an attractive home for fish and lure them back to a formerly polluted urban harbor. Students voted as a class on their color schemes, and themes before designing individual structures. As with many of my group design projects, we attempted to balance the individual creativity of kids with the need for a cooperative group plan, and the practical needs of our fish inhabitants.
This is a short instructional video I made during the pandemic of Spring 2020 to show students how to fabricate ambitious projects out of commonly available cardboard while they were stuck at home. Due to the limited availability of design materials in students apartments, we developed some fascinating solutions to get the best results out of the material that is lying on every new York City sidewalk. This video ended up going somewhat viral and attaining over 30,000 views.
This is a short video I made exploring our recess period at the Portfolio School in New York City. My goal was to help grownups understand some of the cognitive, social and emotional benefits of unstructured play that led us to include it in our core school day at Portfolio School. The film takes place from the point of view of children as they run, play and create new meanings for the spaces they inhabit and the objects they use.
This is a popular video I made during the early pandemic to help students and their families fire ceramics at home during remote learning. Due to the need for calming, comforting craft activities at the height of the pandemic, polymer clay became incredibly popular, as it’s a form of plastic and oil based clay that’s not very messy, and can be fired in an ordinary kitchen oven.
This is a short video I made about a “Little Pig” Engineering Challenge. Kindergarteners learning about fairy tales and the little pig were challenged to build structural frames for houses that would resist lateral forces like hurricanes (and wolves) through building methods with high shear strength. I then dressed as the Big Bad Wolf and attempted to “blow their houses down.” The results were interesting and heartwarming.