On Sunday, October 6 – Tuesday, October 8, local elementary school educators will join ASLA members at the 2024 annual Conference on Landscape Architecture.  

Building on three years of student-focused educational programming, ASLA is pleased to offer DREAM BIG with Design: TEACHER’S EDITION, a three-day Schoolyard as Design Laboratory experience at the headquarters of ASLA in Washington, D.C.  

Goals:    

1. Educate participants about landscape architecture, design principles, and STEM-based alignment of landscape architecture to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).   
2. Create recommendations for the development of new resources.  
3. Develop lesson plans that supplement STEM, arts, social studies, and/or history curricula.    
4. Pilot lesson plans during the 2024-2025 academic year.    

Objectives:   

1. Understand landscape architecture as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline.    
2. Serve as content experts who examine and assess ASLA Career Discovery and Diversity resources and activities for relevancy, functionality, and alignment with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).   
3. Take part in hands-on activities that demonstrate design principles within a STEM-based learning environment.   

Workshop Strands:  

The strands outlined below will equip participants with the understanding and strategies necessary to teach landscape architecture with Schoolyard as Design Laboratory.  

Focus areas will include:   

• Curriculum Integration Development  
• Disruptive education / non-traditional school experiences  
• Critical Thinking Applications: Divergent Learning  
• Landscape Architecture as STEM  
• Consideration of Art, Language, and STEM subjects in Schoolyard Design 
• Teaching Tools and Practices  

Educators will:     

• Take part in interactive sessions and hands-on activities.  
• Serve as content experts in the development of lesson plans.  
• Enjoy a scavenger hunt in the EXPO HALL.   

Takeaways:    

• Participants will learn about landscape architecture as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline and profession.    
• Participants will be trained to teach design principles within an interdisciplinary curriculum.  
• Participants will leave the workshop with an arsenal of plug-and-play resources and lesson plans to implement in their classrooms.  

Workshop Instructors:   

• Arnaldo Cardona, ASLA 
• Taylor Metz, ASLA 
• Miranda Mote, Aff. ASLA 

Please direct questions to Lisa J. Jennings, Senior Manager, Career Discovery and Diversity at ljennings@asla.org.