Product Tips

Form, Function, and Fun

Volume 2 / Issue 3 / Spring 2002

Architectural design kits are among the more sophisticated manipulatives on the market today. Look for kits that reinforce principles of geometry and physics, require attention to detail (symmetry, balance, and aesthetics), and allow for creative exploration.

The Museum Building Block Set, part of the Frank Lloyd Wright collection, contains 52 sleek, handcrafted, solid maple building blocks in a variety of shapes, including seven sizes of concentric half circles. Enclosed are instructions for replicating Wright’s design of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The instructions highlight Wright’s concept of “organic architecture” and encourage creative use of the set beyond reconstructing the Guggenheim. While the museum is fairly easy to assemble, middle schoolers who tested the product found the instructions a bit confusing and did not readily use the set for original creations. For precocious elementary students, however, the Museum Building Block Set (minus the instructions) may be a cut above typical wooden block sets.

Young Architect, by Slinky Science and More, introduces children aged 10 and over to an architect’s aerial view of house and building design. Children use both two- and three-dimensional design techniques to draw a house plan to scale; to position windows, doors, and furniture; and to “build up” the walls with rigid plastic. The kit includes tracing paper, templates, furniture outlines, reusable door and window stickers, and acrylic wall and corner pieces. Young Architect provides excellent exposure to basic architectural planning and allows for creative design manipulation, though the designs are limited to right-angle configurations. Overall, Young Architect received favorable evaluations.

Similar to Young Architect, though much more sophisticated, are the Home Quick Planner and 3-D Home Kit by Design Works, Inc. Together, the planner and the kit provide everything needed to design, draw to scale, and build a model home. The enclosed booklet illustrates formulas for calculating square footage, volumes, and ratios and for determining the amount of paint and building materials needed. The Home Quick Planner attends to every necessity, from site analysis to lifestyle and space details, and instructs the user in preparing professional-quality house plans. The 3-D Home Kit then provides the materials to realize the plan in every detail. Templates and reusable stickers for furniture, windows, stairways, and appliances, right down to the ironing board, add realism and authenticity to the finished model.

The Home Quick Planner and 3-D Home Kit combine mathematics, geometry, creativity, and precision and bring the user through the architectural process from idea to finished product. The cognitive and tactile demands they make are appropriate for gifted middle and high school students; in fact, they are used in the Architecture and Mathematics Workshop at Mount Holyoke’s prestigious SummerMath program.

The clear favorite, among the middle schoolers who tested these kits, is the Amazing Bridges Architecture Kit, by Educational Design, Inc. Demonstrating the principles of physics, geometry, and design intrinsic to bridge architecture, the kit contains detailed instructions plus all the materials for building a Roman arch, a truss bridge, and a suspension bridge. In addition, the instruction booklet identifies and provides photographs of many other types of bridges; explains how bridges work and what materials are best for different types and locations; gives a historical overview of bridge design; and defines the pertinent physics terminology. The booklet is easy to read, and the explanations are excellent. The materials, which include plaster, paints, plastic bases, string, cardboard, and plastic I-beams and gussets, reinforce this information with hands-on, learn-as-you-go fun.
—Sarah Boone

Sarah Boone has an M.A. in teaching and certification in gifted education. She teaches at Meredith College.