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Our flow with the community.
Our flow with the community.
At MTC, we look into the college and our teaching and we look outward into the community to align our classes with who our students are and what they need. Janie Kronk, who teaches Architectural Engineering, lives in this doubleness, often moving back and forth across the college’s threshold. Janie is an architect who only recently joined our teaching community. That freshness of perspective is an important part of our community. In my conversation with her, I see her very much at the threshold between the teaching community and the external community. She looks inward at the skills she’s teaching her students and then outward at the community projects she connects students with.
This flow with our larger community is something that's happening in many ways all over the college. It can be more subtle in some departments, but for Janie's work, she's constantly stitching teaching with non-teaching praxis.
Here, you'll find some visual anchors for what she talks about, quite important when discussing architecture. It includes the Clinic in a Can her students designed for Summerton as well as teaching materials based on her methods. In our conversation, here is yet another unique and important perspective on our flow with the larger community.
Come spend some time with Architectural Engineering.
Episode 7
Episode 7
Listen here to our seventh episode or subscribe on Apple or Spotify podcast services.
Form and Function and Origin
Here are some visual anchors for structures that Janie mentions in our conversation, one here on campus and another around the world.
Aspirational Design
Aspirational Design
This is the Prahran Hotel, in Melbourne, Australia, which a student saw and wanted to understand how to design using the tools of the profession. Janie was ready to help him.
MTC's Science and Engineering Building
MTC's Science and Engineering Building
This is the Science and Engineering Building on the Northeast campus at MTC. Janie was an intern at Quackenbush Architects and Planners while the firm was designing it. In some lovely symmetry, it was the location of the first class she taught as an adjunct at the college.
Getting to Stronger Presentations
In the profession that Janie is teaching, presentations are essential and frequent. To this end, she's done some thinking and enhancement of support for students as they create and give presentations and for students observing and giving feedback on presentations. Here are some resources in case you'd like to adapt them for presentations in your classes. For more ideas on helping students great stronger presentations, come to talk us at the CTE.
Presentation Preparation Checklist
Presentation Preparation Checklist
In order for students to succeed, they need to know what success looks like. Inspired by Janie's work to help students prepare strong presentations, here is a template for creating transparent assignments because if students don't understand what's expected, they will struggle to achieve it.
Presentation Response Worksheet
Presentation Response Worksheet
Here the the worksheet Janie gives her students to use as they observe and give feedback on a fellow student's presentation. The form is designed to be adaptable for your needs and can be expanded to include details relevant to your discipline.
Clinic in a Can
Clinic in a Can
Janie's classes have worked on the design of a Clinic in a Can, which the town of Summerville, SC asked the college to develop for their community. Here is more information about this program and some brief videos showing exactly what the buildings the students work on can look like and function.
Look inside a sample structure at the function.
Solar power keeps the clinics running despite external conditions.
The "cans" can be arrayed to create a clinic complex, as desired.
The Summerton Clinic in a Can Project
Cross My Heart Free Mobile Clinic
The Summerton project is underway! Here is a gallery of images from the class who met the Summerton team, examined the shipping container and pitched their designs and ideas. There are also images of the construction underway for the mobile clinic.
You can also read a summary of the grant the program received through the AARP.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Janie mentions a webinar on diversity, equity and inclusion, which invigorated her teaching. MTC is actively improving related issues in our institution. The webinar, hosted by Cengage and lead by AJ Leu, is in two parts, below. You can also read the host's summary of the ideas here.
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