Education

 

Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms

This year brought the completion of our second Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms (CLC) module, City Shaping: The Olmsteds & Louisville, which is now available on-line.  The Creative Team for the CLC project gave a national presentation for the first CLC modules at the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TCLF significantly advanced their work on their third CLC module, Modern Garden Icons (MGI), a project that will make America's two preeminent private gardens "virtually" accessible. MGI features the Miller Garden, Columbus, IN, designed by Dan Kiley, and the Donnell Garden, Sonoma, CA, designed by Thomas Church. TCLF completed critical filming at the Donnell Garden over a five day period in August. In support of this work, TCLF was awarded a grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in support of the module.

In October 2005 it was officially announced that the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) would serve as an official TCLF partner on the CLC series. This partnership will also include TCLF as an “official” partner for Landscape Architecture Month. As part of this partnership, TCLF’s logo has appeared on all Landscape Architecture Month print and web material. In return, TCLF featured Landscape Architecture Month on our website’s homepage with a link back to ASLA. ASLA will also be a partner for the Landscape Legends Oral History project and the Silent Auction, detailed later in this report.

 

CLC Evaluation Project

The work on evaluating The Prairie Idealized, the Columbus Park Cultural Landscape as Classrooms (CLC) was completed in 2005.  The Columbus Park module was evaluated in order to measure the extent to which the project has achieved its goals and objectives, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate whether or not changes should be made in future units to enhance the project experience overall. 

The consultant used relevant National Standards for Education for the evaluation.  The Board approved a working document in early 2005 that listed standards from different disciplines along with a rationale of how they relate to the Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms project. This working document will be used as a guide for marketing the CLC product and in the development of future CLC modules.

In June 2005 data was collected at Chicago, IL, at Dunne Elementary School, a Chicago public school. Twenty-two students were observed using the Columbus Park CLC and then interviewed about the experience. The students were a mix of sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Students were observed for a maximum of 30 minutes using the CLC Columbus Park cd-rom or website (two students were observed at one time by two researchers; one student using the cd-rom version and the other the website version). Researchers recorded how long and what areas of the program the students used, and took notes on behavior or conversations. Each student was then asked a series of questions by the researcher. Questions included what they liked best about the program, what they would change to improve it, what they learned and how they would use the CLC in school. 

These interviews were utilized in the instructor interview portion of the evaluation that took place in the fall and winter.  A total of ten instructor interviews were integrated into the final report.

The evaluation project examined format and accessibility and included a summative evaluation of overall goals as well as an Outcomes Assessment (assessing changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior). A summary of findings was submitted to TCLF in December 2005.

TCLF’s Education Committee document, Assessment Process for the Chicago CLC, was used to guide the process. The results of the study will help to guide development and assessment of future CLC and support TCLF in seeking future CLC funding. TCLF is pleased to provide copies of this assessment upon request in writing.

 

Landslide: Spotlight on the Garden Announced for 2006

In the fall of 2005, Garden Design magazine became the “official” TCLF partner for Landslide. The first joint collaboration, Landslide 2006: Spotlight on the Garden was formally announced in the September/October 2005 issue of the magazine. This full-page ad was followed-up with another full-page ad, appearing on the rear, inside-cover in the November/December issue.  In 2005, the two organizations made plans for a formal roll out in 2006 including several venues such as the Garden Design booth at the Gramercy Art & Antiques Show in New York City and the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show (both to be held March 2006).

 

Website

In the past year, the TCLF website received over 1,525,000 hits with monthly website visitation surpassing 15,000/month. These totals are up significantly from 1,020,000 the previous year.  Hence, this 50% increase in visitation confirms the capabilities of our primary medium for communicating our educational initiatives, ideas, and activities.

In 2005, TCLF began publishing and distributing their free, bi-monthly e-letter. Website visitors can sign up on the home page. Each newsletter contains regular features which highlight our Landslide landscapes, pioneers, landscape legends oral history and education initiatives. One addition feature that has been developed is our, It takes One: Stewardship Story feature – here, each newsletter spotlights how one person can make a difference.

 

Landscape Legends
Documenting Landscape Architecture in America

The TCLF oral history initiative, Landscape Legends: Documenting Landscape Architecture in America, continued in 2005 with the documentation of Ruth Patricia Shellhorn, filmed at her California home in February. Over the past three years, TCLF has made a commitment to capturing on video pioneers of the landscape architecture profession with the goal of making footage available on-line. TCLF has amassed an impressive collection. To date, we have filmed Lawrence Halprin, Richard Haag, and Ted Osmundson. We have also video documented Dan Kiley (at his home in Charlotte, VT), Grady Clay (at his home in Louisville, KY), and scholar Dr. Charles Beveridge, at the Olmsted office and home, Fairstead. Shellhorn joins this group of luminaries in our video library, which we are preparing for a national audience. Special thanks go to Tom Fox and the SWA Group who have donated their time and resources, and to Topher Delaney – SEAM Studio whose support this year that will lead to the documentation of Cornelia Oberlander.