IDEC Exchange - Interior Design Educators Council

2010 SPECIAL GRANT REPORTStephanie Clemons, Ph.D., Colorado State UniversityPeggy Harrison, ret., Cherry Creek High School, Denver, CO.Images: [Top] Peggy Harrison[Bottom] Stephanie Clemons.Phase I: Development of Teaching Materials for K-12 Teachers/StudentsThis IDEC Special Project Grant was funded through a joint partnershipbetween IDEC and Colorado Technical Education + Family and ConsumerScience (CTE + FCS).The objectives of the grant were to:1. More accurately educate high school students about the interior designprofession2. Encourage Family and Consumer Science (FCS) national standardsto be more reflective of the interior design profession by developing ofappropriate teaching materials that support the new national assessmentand certification.3. Develop a template and a sample of supporting interior design materialsfor classroom use.Due to procuring matching funds, a student and teacher template + three(3) teaching modules containing three (3) lesson plans each (n= total of 9lesson plans) were developed and will be submitted to both IDEC and theState of Colorado in November. Based on feedback from FCS interior designteachers, the three module topics are global/cultural design, universal design,and sustainable design. Each module begins with an introductory lesson onthe topic, which is then followed up with a lesson plan related to residentialdesign and commercial design. Reccomendations for future lesson plans weredeveloped and will be submitted to IDEC.Some of the grant monies were used to present all three lessons in Module1: Global/Cultural Design at a refereed two-hour workshop to high schoolFCS teachers at the annual American Association of Family and ConsumerScience (AAFCS) conference in June 2011. Two of the three lesson planswere also offered in a workshop to 24 interior design FCS teachers in July2011. Assessments from these workshops helped refine the lesson plancontent and guide the development of the final two modules.All nine lesson plans offer step-by-step instructions for teachers and students,unit objectives, identification of domains from the AAFCS Pre-Pac InteriorDesign Fundamental Exam, national standards, life skills, instructionalstrategies, time needed to complete the unit, glossary words and requiredmaterials. As student skills and knowledge may be at different levelsdepending on when the course is taught, some optional assignments areoffered. In addition, terms that may be new to both the teacher and studentare briefly explained (e.g. programming or evidence-based design).By offering high school interior design lesson plans that reflect the full scopeof the profession, and linking them to the AAFCS exam, the national FCSstandards will be continue to be modified. Once reviewed and approved byIDEC, we hope the nine lesson plans will become a part of the TeachingResources web site allowing them national exposure for all FCS interiordesign teachers to access.18