New Rochelle Elementary Students Design and Build Exhibit Hall

Imagine if you were asked to design a convention center booth layout for about 18 participants.

How would you go about it? Where would you start?

Perhaps you might want to contact the fourth graders at Columbus Elementary School who just designed and built an EXPO center, which served to display third, fourth and fifth grade projects.

Principal Dr. Yigal Joseph said this was the 10th year the grade has done "Math through Design" EXPO project.

"This is inquiry-based pedagogy," he said. "It gives the students an authentic problem to solve."

In this case, the students were asked to solve a complex, real-life problem: "How to change a 100-foot by 60-foot gymnasium into a convention-type exhibit hall which provides 120 square feet of area of each of the 18 exhibitors (i.e., all third, fourth and fifth grade classes) and allows hundreds of visitors to move safely through the hall."

Joseph said the fourth-grade students studied Greco-Roman architecture and mythology through field trips to Manhattan to observe design of famous structures such as Grand Central Terminal.

He said each class submitted a design and gave an oral presentation to a panel of local architects. Designs were judged according to the overall attractiveness, creativity, practicality, neatness and accuracy of the plan, the ease and safety with which visitors can get into and move around the gym and the overall quality of the oral presentation.

"This is a real world application," Joseph said. "It's an authentic problem."

The winning design was then, with the help of teachers, outlined on the gym floor in blue tape on top of which was built the booth wall framework, out of PVC pipe.

Joseph said the the exercise far exceeds the basic principals—area and perimeter—that the students have to learn.

"It goes beyond simulation," he said. "They have to think dimensionally."

The winning design, of course, was the one used for the EXPO. All the other designs were displayed on the walls of the school.

Mauricio Esquivel, 9, and Jaden Crisp, 9, are in Antoinette Koehler's fourth-grade class.

Their design didn't win, but it shows some of the thought processes that went into the project.

Crisp said their design was based on what they learned about Corinthian columns.

He said the layout for the exhibitors' booths mimicked the style of column, with a wide end such as the capital, or top part of the column, a narrower shaft portion and a wide base area.

Crisp said it was exciting and fun to work on the project, even though their design didn't come out on top.

"I was scared about the final judging," he said.

Esquivel said he enjoyed his trip to Manhattan.

"We learned a lot about columns and architecture," he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See Tuesday's New Rochelle Patch for more on the exhibit by Columbus Elementary School third, fourth and fifth graders.