Embedded Files
Exercise with Interactive Website
Through the use of the interactive website, I was able to develop higher level analytical thinking. The exercise is also structured to facilitate collaboration between students. You might classify the activity as a case-study, although I believe it allows greater freedom than some case studies, because students select their own examples.
We were in week 4, after students had learned around 30 terms and had learned the basic principles of art. They had completed one assignment for which they had to analyze a work of art, but had not completed an exercise requiring independent thinking of this nature.
I started by introducing the Bauhaus, the nature of the school, its products, and its influence. I showed a few examples, which I discussed only minimally, so that I wouldn't inhibit my students free thinking. I opened the site, Bauhaus: Workshops for Modernity, and walked students through how to navigate it. Then they were then given the handout below, and allowed to split themselves into groups and begin research. I circled the computer lab to provide help whenever needed.
The handout provides the instructions you see below at the top, and then two columns - one for Bauhaus beside another for IKEA. Students take brief notes on the handout, which they use when presenting their selections to their classmates informally at the end of the activity. I believe I allowed them 15-20 minutes to work.
Instructions
- Choose a partner
- Visit: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/bauhaus/ and browse the site’s “Timeline of Selected Works” (click on Weimar and you can scroll through the various years’ products).
- Look through the works and read the descriptions to get a feel of the Bauhaus aesthetic and some of the forms the Bauhaus introduced. (Concentrate on interior furnishings.)
- In a new window, open: http://info.ikea-usa.com/Catalog/ and browse the 2012 catalog
- Choose a category from the IKEA catalogue with your partner, either: Living Room (can be 2 groups), Dining, Kitchen, Bedroom, Workspaces, or Lighting.
- Choose home furnishings from the catalogue that you feel relate to and display influence from the Bauhaus school, which you would like to present to your classmates.
- Pick 4-5 pieces that fit together, enough to furnish a room (chairs, table, lamps, bookshelf, rug, etc.).
- Take down some notes of what you will say about the Bauhaus works vs. IKEA works individually.
- Take some notes of what you'd like to say overall about the Bauhaus vs. IKEA, and about how the objects of your room go together.
- Keep images of your Bauhaus works and IKEA works open to show to your classmates.
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IKEA
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