Teachers Gain New Strategies in Fallingwater’s Summer Residency
Andrew Phillips (far right), a faculty member at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design, listens to a participant in Fallingwater’s summer residency program.
The Bear Run School houses students just as it did nearly a century ago, but the lessons are considerably different.
While children once sat in front of the blackboard, now it’s not unusual to see an adult inside the newly restored one-room schoolhouse, which is now called the Bear Run Educational Center. While teachers there once taught skills for the 20th century on blackboards, educators now use LCD projectors to encourage students to learn 21st-century critical thinking, collaboration and and conceptualization skills through the study of architecture.
The school is the site of many of Fallingwater’s on-site educational offerings for students of all ages, such as hands-on workshops, lectures, residencies and studios. While Fallingwater provides educational opportunities throughout the year, a highlight is the week-long Fallingwater Teachers Residency
Kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers participate in the summer program, which teaches trans-disciplinary lessons through the study of architecture and design. The teacher residents are often inspired to bring the critical thinking skills they gained back to the classroom and to develop new teaching strategies for all learning styles.
Last summer’s teachers program was taught by Andrew Phillips, a faculty member at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design (CHAD), located in Philadelphia, where Andrew has taught for the past four years. In addition, Phillips taught for 14 years at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design while maintaining his private practice, dommertphillips, PC.
“The program is a project-based studio course that emphasizes problem-solving through architecture,” said Roy Young, Fallingwater’s curator of education. “We explore learning through design from the perspective of many different disciplines — the visual arts, architecture, the environment and history. Andrew did a great job seamlessly incorporating them all into one cohesive experience, while guiding the teachers through the concepts. The teachers are transformed by their experiences at Fallingwater.”
Young aims to have the residency program taught by a veteran architectural educator with experience specific to K-12 curriculum, and he said he found the perfect fit in Phillips.
Phillips, who received his Master of Architecture from Harvard University, is a recipient of the Philadelphia AIA Chapter’s Young Architect Award.
For more information about the teachers program or Fallingwater’s other educational opportunities, contact Jennifer Hiebert, education programs coordinator at 724-329-7826 or jhiebert@paconserve.org.