Students are using construction paper, file folders, foam board, and math to create new worlds in the Geometrocity course at Camp Discover.
Inspired by a favorite video game, Ashton T. has designed a city from Ancient Greece, complete with stables, blacksmith shop, vineyard, and pottery shop.
Visitors to Addison G.’s city – Children’s World – will have no end of things to do. One corner is devoted to sports with areas for basketball, softball, and baseball plus an in-ground trampoline. It might be hard to draw attention away from the chocolate lake, however.
Gavin G. is carefully crafting a city that will be familiar to many: Candyland. He’s off to a good start with his first structure, a curved bridge.
Megumi T. and Bethany B. are using a unique approach, combining their foam board bases to give elevation to their town. “It was Megumi’s idea,” Bethany is quick to point out.
The cities are taking shape after brief instruction into the geometric concepts of faces, edges, and nets. “They caught on so quickly,” instructor Jessi Hampton said. Once students grasped the basics, she turned them loose. “There’s been lots of trial and error, but they’re learning.”
She sits among her students as they measure, cut, and fold paper, sharing tips for their creations and asking questions about their lives in cities and towns across Kentucky and Tennessee. As they talk, she connects their work with what goes on outside the classroom walls.
“Architects and engineers, even though they often use 3D software now, they also make the physical models to show clients sometimes,” Jessi said. “What we’re doing is what they do in the real world.”
