Students engage in observation, drawing, and math exercises to build the skills crucial to being an architect: model-making, architectural drafting, and communication. During the program, students will also visit one of the Museum's exhibitions as an introduction to the work of architectural creation. Students will not visit the PLAY WORK BUILD exhibition as in previous years.

Students become city planners for the day as they design and build their own model city. Students consider the problems a city can have and offer solutions by planning their own community. They use their imaginations to design and construct model buildings for the city using colorful supplies and recycled materials. Students will take home their model buildings. Prepare your student for this program with pre-visit lessons.

Where would an orangutan like his bed? Does a tiger need personal space?  What kind of exercise equipment does a macaw like?  Students will investigate questions of this sort as they design habitats for animals and explore the client/architect relationship. After planning and designing a habitat for an animal, students will build model habitats to take home.

Students learn about the importance of patterns in the buildings and world around them. On a scavenger hunt of the Museum's building, students identify shapes and patterns by examining the walls, floors, and ceiling of the Museum. After investigating the Museum building, students head to a museum classroom to create patterns in individual booklets with a variety of materials. Prepare your student for this program with pre-visit lessons.

Students learn what makes a home environmentally sustainable, or "green," by investigating green homes from the past and present. Students investigate different technologies and materials that help make each home suitable for its geographic region. Students then become architects and design and construct model green homes for several different geographic regions. Students take home their designs.

In this program, students will learn through doing about the awesome power of water pressure and how civil engineers have utilized it over time. Students will work in small groups to create miniature architectural features that transport water over distances, and shoot water the farthest possible distance. Using what they have learned, students will then design and build PVC pipe fountains. Students may get slightly wet during this class.