The first concept from my concentration of child development is that providing an environment of learning, a place that they can play, interact, touch, smell, and more, will support the development of their motor skills. I have the opportunity to provide an environment in the FamilyZone at the Arizona Museum for Youth. We are looking at a park setting that will give the children a place away from the museum to rest, have snacks and drinks that are not allowed in the exhibition area, and at the same time still get the hands-on learning experience they do in the exhibition areas.
The second concept from child development is the importance of the a bond between parent and child. If there is a lack of bonding with a parent and child, this can severely alter their developmental pattern. In the FamilyZone I will be assisting in designing, we want to incorporate an area that the children can interact on their own, but also, what the museum fully supports, interact with their parent or guardian. We realize the importance of bonding time and want to add activities that the parent and child can do together and even create areas that the parent and child can quietly sit and read together and learn from each other, strenthening their bond or even creating a bond.
Along the same lines, the above concept can be applied to my design studies concentrations. From a design aspect, the concept would be considering a child development at any age, and then design areas that can support that development. In the FamilyZone, I will again be designing the area so that the child would get the same development support in all of the museum whether away from the exhibitions areas or apart of the exhibition areas.
Lastly, on the design studies area, one last concept would be whatever you are designing, make sure that the design will not detract from the purpose of the product or object. The project I am currently working on is the Educator's Manual. I am conbining all the aspects needed for a good, usable manual and design it so that it looks good, but still is readable and useful so that they can get the important information that will aid them in bettering their tour presentations and help introduce the children to the world of art and learning that go hand in hand.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Inter and Multi-Disciplinary Learning
The difference between interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary is the way the desciplines are mixed. The way that I remember the difference if someone were to break their leg, in a multidisciplinary business, they would have to find the only person that is trained to fix the broken leg. In an interdisciplinary business, everyone is trained to perform that duty.
My internship, I feel, is both. First, they are multidisciplinary. I am working on their emergency plan. I am working with an online program that requires me to meet with individual people because they each have information for the evacuation plan and no one overlaps in their knowledge. One is trained in the computer area, the other in the evacuation plan, the other in the emergency funding.
They are also interdisciplinary because the museum only has about 11 employees and so each person needs to be trained in multiple disciplines such as education, art, and child development. They all work together meshing their knowledge together so that they can accomplish their tasks.
Just recently, the museum changed the job titles of their educator guides...the people that give the school tours. They went from doing all the chores together to specializing in just specific areas. They went from interdisciplinary to multidisciplinary. They are trying to organize all the staff to be more multidisciplinary so that they can focus more on particular areas, but they continue to work in the interdisciplinary way.
The museum is definatly hierarchical because each one person answers to someone higher. I have been working on creating their Educator Guide Manual and one of the elements in the "Getting to Know Arizona Museum for Youth" is a chart that informs them who is located where in the scheme of ranking. Everyone in the company has this chart and even while I was typing in the position titles that were newly formed one of the main points were whom they were to 'answer to'. AMY is very focused on a person's ranking.
My internship, I feel, is both. First, they are multidisciplinary. I am working on their emergency plan. I am working with an online program that requires me to meet with individual people because they each have information for the evacuation plan and no one overlaps in their knowledge. One is trained in the computer area, the other in the evacuation plan, the other in the emergency funding.
They are also interdisciplinary because the museum only has about 11 employees and so each person needs to be trained in multiple disciplines such as education, art, and child development. They all work together meshing their knowledge together so that they can accomplish their tasks.
Just recently, the museum changed the job titles of their educator guides...the people that give the school tours. They went from doing all the chores together to specializing in just specific areas. They went from interdisciplinary to multidisciplinary. They are trying to organize all the staff to be more multidisciplinary so that they can focus more on particular areas, but they continue to work in the interdisciplinary way.
The museum is definatly hierarchical because each one person answers to someone higher. I have been working on creating their Educator Guide Manual and one of the elements in the "Getting to Know Arizona Museum for Youth" is a chart that informs them who is located where in the scheme of ranking. Everyone in the company has this chart and even while I was typing in the position titles that were newly formed one of the main points were whom they were to 'answer to'. AMY is very focused on a person's ranking.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Reasoning...
My name is Katy VanVleet Hanchett. I am a 6th year senior and so ready to graduate! I enjoy spending time with my husband of 2 and 1/2 years and love the outdoors...when it's cooler. I also love to blog so I am very excited for this assignment. My two concentrations are child development and design studies. I chose the two concentrations because I have always had a love for design (graphic design on particular) and I eventually want to start a family so I felt it would be interesting to learn more about children.
I am doing my applied studies internship at the Arizona Museum for Youth, a museum centered on children and learning to appreciate art and to become an artist themselves. It is very hands on for the children and is such a fun learning environment. My first project is to create a manual for the guides. I have been gathering information for the guide so that they can improve their ways of understanding children and improve the opportunities of learning. My other main project will be designing the FamilyZone area so that the families can step outside the exhibits and have snacks and drinks. I hope that once I have completed this internship, I will personally have a better understanding of the way children can interact and learn with art. Academically, I want to learn the aspects of designing areas that can enhance a child's learning. People have lately been focusing on a child's learning capacity, but they find that funding art is not important to education. I feel that the interaction of art can enhance their development.
My goals for after graduation are somewhat similar to my intership. I want to work with Autistic children through art and this internship will teach me about how children can benefit and I can take that gained knowledge and apply it to my desired job with challenged children. If art can help "normal" children, then surely art can really benefit others.
I am doing my applied studies internship at the Arizona Museum for Youth, a museum centered on children and learning to appreciate art and to become an artist themselves. It is very hands on for the children and is such a fun learning environment. My first project is to create a manual for the guides. I have been gathering information for the guide so that they can improve their ways of understanding children and improve the opportunities of learning. My other main project will be designing the FamilyZone area so that the families can step outside the exhibits and have snacks and drinks. I hope that once I have completed this internship, I will personally have a better understanding of the way children can interact and learn with art. Academically, I want to learn the aspects of designing areas that can enhance a child's learning. People have lately been focusing on a child's learning capacity, but they find that funding art is not important to education. I feel that the interaction of art can enhance their development.
My goals for after graduation are somewhat similar to my intership. I want to work with Autistic children through art and this internship will teach me about how children can benefit and I can take that gained knowledge and apply it to my desired job with challenged children. If art can help "normal" children, then surely art can really benefit others.
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