Class Report: 1-10-2018

1.0 Course Syllabus

The course syllabus was discussed in depth, explaining the various topics that the class will be discussing, graded upon, and rules that will be adhered to throughout the course.

The differences between the class reports and blog posts were explained while describing how they are to be split up between the students.

2.0 Big Problems

How can we, students with and architectural education, help solve bigger problems that are not in our immediate field of study?

• The scientific method was a topic to be reviewed having input from the whole class.

    With these words, the groups were to put them into an order that they deemed correct.

• After each group decided on their interpretation of the solution, the class would reconvene to discuss their reasoning why they choose the order that they did. 

• Each group determined their order and each group each had differences. However, all of the groups placed their sequence in a straight line. This straight line was a solution that did not place any hierarchy on any one part of the problem-solving process. 

The biggest discussion in this point of the exercise was where in the problem-solving sequence, “assemble a team” would appear. 

• How do we determine what is good or bad? How can we say no to something before it’s been tested? These questions were asked about the “test ideas/ prototype” and “assess success and failure” in the order decided by each group.

Each group broke up again, from the full class, with a new angle on this process exercise. We were then asked to place these same words in the order needed to solve the issue Marilyn had given us, “American politics is divisive.”

• The outcomes for this iteration were completely different throughout each group. They had begun to think outside the box as to how they could show hierarchy and the decision on where to place words changed drastically too.

After the initial group meeting for this exercise, something that changed my perspective on the way in which we looked at it was bringing the idea of hierarchy and out of the box thinking that we have been taught to this seemingly simple task of putting words in an order. By doing so the order of words went from a straight line into a cycle that would inevitably be a repeating loop until the problem at hand was solved in some way or another.
3.0 May & Jane Situation

The class progressed and the discussion changed as the class was given a handout with a situation between a tenant, Mary, and her landlord, Jane. This paper gave background information that led up to Jane evicting Mary from her apartment.

• The discussion of money following risk within the business world surfaced as the business of the landlord became more relevant.

• Red-Herring – Something that is thrown into a situation/story to distract the reader to lose focus on the facts that are being presented.

• In the end of the discussion the class had come to the conclusion that we do not know the for sure what is the correct decision unless we have the lease.

The big take-away from this discussion would be there are many different variables throughout an eviction process and whether or not things were done in the correct order, it still falls on the agreement that was signed on for the lease.The class was split up into three smaller groups and given a list of unorganized words explaining different parts of a problem-solving sequence.

The big take-away from this exercise would be that each problem, if one is at hand, can have a different order of operations involving parts may be more important than others. The iteration process is something we learn through design school that can be implemented in situations and problems that may not directly connect with design issues, but can be solved and reflected upon using this technique.