In-Depth Post #5

Good morning, Good afternoon, and Good evening.  

Wherever you are, welcome to my fifth In-Depth Post! My In-Depth Project is about how we can design buildings so that they are fully accessible to anyone with a disability. 

 

Project Progress Report 

This week I continued working on the final project for In-Depth. I am going to be making a scale model of the school and design it so that every room is accessible to anyone with a disability.  

In the last In-Depth Post, I talked about what options I had to build my model of the school out of. My options were using Foam Core, which is a lightweight board that Annerieke uses for her models of buildings, making it out of cardboard, as I have made models out of cardboard before, and my final option is to use a modeling software called SketchUp. 

I have decided to use SketchUp as I can make the building to scale, I can insert desks to fill the room, and I have no size limitation. If I build the model out of Foam Core or cardboard, it would have to be built to a certain scale, I would have to measure out the rooms and then scale them down, I would also have to make sure that I would have a way to transport the model to school for the final Presentation. 

I did a bit of practice work on SketchUp and am learning the different functions and tools that SketchUp has to offer. It is a bit complicated, but once I got going it was smooth sailing. One of the functions of SketchUp that I really like is being able to change the size of any of the walls, doors, and floors. 

One of the big ideas that we talked about was to make the process fun. Annerieke said that I should make the school the way I would want a school to be. When I was younger and I had a Pro-D Day, I spent it with Annerieke and designed a school that had a ski lift attached to it. She told me that I should design the building the way that I want it to be, it doesn’t have to be anything like anyone has ever seen before. That is why I am going to have fun during the design process. 

 

Report on Mentorship Experience 

 

  1. What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?  

Annerieke has given me lots of resources that I have used to learn more about building buildings so that they are accessible to anyone with a disability. An example of this is the Building Accessibility Handbook which details the size that doorways, hallways, bathrooms, etc. have to be. 

  1. What kinds of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?  

Some learning opportunities that exist to reinforce new learning are taking measurements at different schools in SD43 to see how all of the doorways line up against each other. Would all of the doorway sizes be the same? Why might some doorways be bigger or smaller? 

  1. What kinds of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?  

I could get the Rick Hansen Foundation’s accessibility rating scale and rate different schools in SD43. If some of the schools come up on the lower end of the accessibility scale, then I could investigate why the score is so low and what could be done to give the school a better rating. 

  1. When you get together what do you talk about?  

When Annerieke and I have our meetings, we talk about whatever part of the design process we are in. In our first meeting we talked about how buildings are designed to help people with disabilities. In our second meeting we talked about how Gleneagle Secondary is compared to the Building Accessibility Handbook. In our third meeting we started getting ready for the final project by talking about what options I had to build my final project. In our most recent meeting, we talked about how I am going to make the final project in SketchUp and the different ways I can show an accessible building. 

  1. What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?  

One thing that is going very well in my mentoring relationship right now is Annerieke is available if I need to ask her some questions about a certain part of the building. I am able to send her an email and when she has time, she sends me an email back with the information I am looking for. 

  1. What are you learning about one another? 

I have learned that Annerieke is a very helpful, compassionate, and fun person to work with as I will suggest an idea that I have, and she will tell me what needs to be done in order for that idea to work. 

 

Until next time,  

 

Matthias 

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