Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

A redesign of my design foundation class projects allows my students to learn graphic design, understand the impact of redlining on urban communities, raise their social awareness of the historical heritages of local places, and increase their information literacy through course research. The projects are both student-centered and research-informed, as students create photobooks and data projects that explore the topics using data and photography to create visual stories. The prompts start with the 1940 HOLC map of New Britain, CT, old and current U.S. Census information, and a list of city neighborhoods supported by the resources in the university library: Project 1: Each student develops a route for a photo walk based on their research and takes photos that illustrate the design elements, principles, and characteristics of the communities. Using appropriate software, editing, and curation the student designs and produces a photo book. Project 2: Each student continues exploring the maps, images, census, and other data demonstrating the ways that social and economic policies shaped New Britain. Outcomes may range from building architecture, immigration, religion, poverty, crime rates, school funding, and changes within communities. Students create either a large format collage or an infographic to visually share their findings and connections. In my proposed presentation, I will highlight the progress and results of the two print projects and show the class’s collective reel of the neighborhoods and a slide show of the data projects. This additional version of their projects allows students to combine contemporary tools with traditional printed design and develop graphic design skills.