In December 2023, Geeta Wahi Dua led a tour of Sunder Nursery in Delhi for CAORC OFDS participants. During the tour, she intertwined the history of the nursery with stories of the design elements, pointing out motifs and the meaning behind them.
Garden as Universe, Universe as Garden: What are the creative realms of gardens in contemporary India? Landscape architect Geeta Wahi Dua discusses curating the book Bagh-e-Bahar for the 2023 India Art, Architecture, and Design Biennale. The book celebrates the idea of a “garden” in the context of India. Dua shares selected gardens in India with strong attributes toward philosophical, environmental, and design aesthetics, which cover diverse geographies, manifest in multiple scales, and reflect the rich natural and cultural heritage of the country. UCF Arboretum Director Jennifer Elliot as moderator.

This course focuses on the algorithms for analyzing and designing geometric foldings. Topics include reconfiguration of foldable structures, linkages made from one-dimensional rods connected by hinges, folding two-dimensional paper (origami), and unfolding and folding three-dimensional polyhedra. Applications to architecture, robotics, manufacturing, and biology are also covered in this course.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to videographers Martin Demaine and Jayson Lynch.

Students learn about geometric relationships by solving real mini putt examples on paper and then using putters and golf balls to experiment with the teacher’s pre-made mini put hole(s) framed by 2 x 4s, comparing their calculated (theoretical) results to real-world results. To “solve the holes,” they find the reflections of angles and then solve for those angles. They do this for 1-, 2- and 3-banked hole-in-one shots. Next, students apply their newly learned skills to design, solve and build their own mini putt holes, also made of 2 x 4s and steel corners.

Students explore the effects of regional geology on bridge foundation, including the variety of soil conditions found beneath foundations. They learn about shallow and deep foundations, as well as the concepts of bearing pressure and settlement.

Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Lever House, 1951-52 (390 Park Avenue, NYC) Speakers: Dr. Matthew A. Postal and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

Students learn about water poverty and how water engineers can develop appropriate solutions to a problem that is plaguing nearly a sixth of the world's population. Students follow the engineering design process to design a gravity-fed water system. They choose between different system parameters such as pipe sizes, elevation differentials between entry and exit pipes, pipe lengths and tube locations to find a design that provides the maximum flow and minimum water turbidity (cloudiness) at the point of use. In this activity, students play the role of water engineers by designing and building model gravity-fed water systems, learning the key elements necessary for viable projects that help improve the lives people in developing communities.

The Green Design Challenge is to brainstorm, prototype and present a design idea for a social entrepreneurship project focusing on green design that meets the design principles. Photo examples from ISKME's Teacher Innovation Workshop are included.

Students engage in the second design challenge of the unit, which is an extension of the maze challenge they solved in the first lesson/activity of this unit. Students extend the ideas learned in the maze challenge with a focus more on the robot design. Gears are a very important part of any machine, particularly when it has a power source such as engine or motor. Specifically, students learn how to design the gear train from the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT servomotor to the wheel to make the LEGO taskbot go faster or slower. A PowerPoint® presentation, pre/post quizzes and a worksheet are provided.

The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate some of the different parts of an airplane through the construction of a paper airplane. Students will build several different kinds of paper airplanes in order to figure out what makes an airplane fly and what can be changed to influence the flying characteristics of an airplane.

Students operate mock 3D bioprinters in order to print tissue constructs of bone, muscle and skin for a fictitious trauma patient, Bill. The model bioprinters are made from ordinary materials— cardboard, dowels, wood, spools, duct tape, zip ties and glue (constructed by the teacher or the students)—and use squeeze bags of icing to lay down tissue layers. Student groups apply what they learned about biological tissue composition and tissue engineering in the associated lesson to design and fabricate model replacement tissues. They tangibly learn about the technical aspects and challenges of 3D bioprinting technology, as well as great detail about the complex cellular composition of tissues. At activity end, teams present their prototype designs to the class.

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies. As of March 1998, America's built environment has been recorded through surveys containing more than 363,000 measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 35,000 historic structures and sites dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.

This seminar offers a critical review of scholarship on Islamic architecture through close reading of scholarly texts, museum exhibitions, and architectural projects. It also tackles methodological and historiographical questions about the field’s formation, genealogy, recent expansion, and its evolving historical and theoretical contours.

Students learn about some of the different climate zones in China and consider what would be appropriate design, construction and materials for houses in those areas. This prepares them to conduct the associated activity(ies) in which they design, build and test small model homes for three different climate zones.

Student teams follow the steps of the engineering design process to meet the challenge of getting their entire class from one location on the playground to the sidewalk without touching the ground between. The class develops a well thought-out plan while following the steps of the engineering design process. Then, they test their solution by going outside and trying it out. Through the post-activity assessment, they compare their problem-solving experience to real life engineering challenges, such as creating new forms of transportation or new product invention.

A truly inter-disciplinary course, Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions reviews how law, economics, sociology, political science, and planning conceptualize urban land and property rights and uses cases to discuss what these different lenses illuminate and obscure. It also looks at how the social sciences might be informed by how design, cartography, and visual studies conceptualize space’s physicality. This year’s topics include land trusts for affordable housing, mixed-use in public space, and critical cartography.

Do you have coffee filters, masking tape, and some bendy straws handy? Grab those and a few more supplies from your kitchen and you're ready to start thinking like an engineer.

How to Canva: Tips and Tricks is an online introductory course on Canva. It is designed as open educational resources for educators and all. In this course, you will learn how to customise text, text effects, colours, photos, videos and elements plus pro tips and Ideas for Creative uses of Elements, Keywords and Styles. The videos are concise, purposeful and delivered in easy-to-follow lessons that progressively build one's skills over time. By the end of this course, you will be able to create an attractive Instagram post. Click on View Resource and let's get started!

Engineers create and use new materials, as well as new combinations of existing materials to design innovative new products and technologies—all based upon the chemical and physical properties of given substances. In this activity, students act as materials engineers as they learn about and use chemical and physical properties including tessellated geometric designs and shape to build better smartphone cases. Guided by the steps of the engineering design process, they analyze various materials and substances for their properties, design/test/improve a prototype model, and create a dot plot of their prototype testing results.

Do you want to start or grow your own business, go international, or avoid bankruptcy?

In this business and management course, you will learn the key steps to take to design or innovate your own business model. You will learn about the trade-offs to be made, and the design issues that are critical for a viable and sustainable business model.

This course will help you answer questions like, how do I create a simple business model in a structured way, how do I engage my users and how do I create value for my customers as well as revenue for my company.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to the resources for designing and fabricating smart systems, including CAD/CAM/CAE; NC machining, 3-D printing, injection molding, laser cutting; PCB layout and fabrication; sensors and actuators; analog instrumentation; embedded digital processing; wired and wireless communications. This course also puts emphasis on learning how to use the tools as well as understand how they work.