David Hernandez, a fifth grader at Welches Elementary School, and his group took to the internet to come up with ideas for their architecture project, which entailed designing playground equipment and
creating a model of it. The group decided on a boat, featuring slides, a tunnel,
bouncy chairs, a climbing wall, barrels, a steering wheel and more.

“I’ve just seen boats with slides and rock climbing walls on the side, but some
stuff we have now I’ve never seen,” said Hernandez, 10.

The project is part of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon’s Architects in
Schools program, pairing architects and design professionals with classroom
teachers. For the project at Welches, students in fifth and third grade classes
were put together in small groups, also offering the opportunity for different
age groups to interact.

Third grader Adam Pintado, 9, was in the same group with Hernandez, and
noted it was a benefit to work with a more advanced student.

“The older kids are smarter, so they’ll know what to do,” Pintado said.

Hernandez also found benefits in working with some younger students.

“Their imagination has other things and other ideas,” he said. “They come up
with good ideas.”

The group including fifth grader Jeb Payne and third grader Bradley Nelson
came up with some ideas that would be welcome in most living rooms, not
just on the playground. Their tree house includes a flat screen TV,
soundproofing, a kitchen, a couch and candy, in addition to more traditional
features such as a rock climbing wall, a slide and “a bouncy thing.”

“We all had different ideas,” said Payne, 10. “We all wanted something
different so it was hard to figure out what we could do.”

After students came up with their designs, approval was needed from
Mechanical Engineer Roger Arnold, Jr. from the Portland engineering firm
Glumac, including an official stamp, before construction of the model could
begin.

“It’s actually kind of good because we get this awesome stamp,” said Nelson,
8.

Fifth grader Olivia Daniels noted her group researched playground ideas in
books, and landed on including a tire swing in order to have it last longer in
the mountain weather. She added that the group did end up coming to the
same conclusion, despite the potential for disagreement.

“Sometimes, if someone else has an idea, things can get squiggly, like
messed up, where someone doesn’t like something,” said Daniels, 10. “The
funny thing is, when we were doing it, we all wanted to do a tire swing and a
bench swing.”

Ellie Garmon, a third grader who worked with Daniels, added that the tire
swing would be a good change from the others at the school’s playground.
“We already have a ton of swings,” said Garmon, 8.

Fifth grade teacher Kalee Adams noted that the hands-on project offers an
introduction to a career that uses a variety of skills, including math, art and
science. She added that students from both grades were excited to work on
the project and that the lessons they learned were evident elsewhere in their
studies.

“I've noticed students use vocabulary learned from Roger, or this program,
while independently reading, or researching for their expository essays,”
Adams wrote in an email. “The connections across our curriculum have started
to present itself. It's truly exciting to witness as a teacher.”

Arnold said that when he first presented to the students, he connected his
career in engineering to playing with Lego blocks as a child. He’s completed a
myriad of projects, including an airport in Las Vegas, Nev. and a movie
theater outside Washington, D.C., and connected his work now to what
inspired him in his youth.

“The concept being, if you can build it in Legos, you can build it in real life,”
Arnold said. “Legos are great because you can make your imagination wander
and build whatever you want out of it.”

This is Arnold’s first endeavor with the Architects in Schools program, which
he sees as a good way to introduce kids to the field at an early age,
particularly those groups that are currently underrepresented.

“There’s not enough women or minorities in engineering,” he said. “This is the
opportunity to affect that change, when kids are young and passionate about
something new, that there are role models out there that can get them to an
engineering career.”

March 17 update: a special reception presenting the design projects
will be held from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at the Hoodland
Library, 24525 Welches Road, and is open to the general public. The
projects will be on display at the library from Wednesday, March 22
through Monday, April 3.