Become a Landscape Architect

DREAM BIG with Design: TEACHER’S EDITION

On Sunday, October 6 – Tuesday, October 8, elementary school educators will join ASLA members at the 2024 annual Conference on Landscape Architecture. 

Building on three years of student-focused educational programming, ASLA is pleased to offer DREAM BIG with Design: TEACHER’S EDITION, a three-day professional development event for local elementary school educators at the headquarters of ASLA in Washington, DC. 

Goals 

1. Educate participants about landscape architecture, design principles, and STEM-based alignment of landscape architecture to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  
2. Create recommendations for the development of new resources. 
3. Develop lesson plans that supplement STEM, arts, social studies, and/or history curricula.   
4. Pilot lesson plans during the 2024-2025 academic year.  

Objectives:

1. Understand landscape architecture as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline.   
2. Serve as content experts who examine and assess ASLA Career Discovery and Diversity resources and activities for relevancy, functionality, and alignment with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  
3. Take part in hands-on activities that demonstrate design principles within a STEM-based learning environment. 

Workshop Strands: 

The strands outlined below will equip participants with the understanding and strategies necessary to teach landscape architecture with Schoolyard as Design Laboratory. 

Focus areas will include:

• Curriculum Integration Development 
• Disruptive education / non-traditional school experiences 
• Critical Thinking Applications: Divergent Learning 
• Landscape Architecture as STEM 
• Consideration of Art, Language, and STEM subjects in Schoolyard Design
• Teaching Tools and Practices 

Educators will:  

• Take part in interactive sessions and hands-on activities. 
• Serve as content experts in the development of lesson plans. 
• Enjoy a scavenger hunt in the EXPO HALL. 

Takeaways: 

• Participants will learn about landscape architecture as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline and profession.   
• Participants will be trained to teach design principles within an interdisciplinary curriculum. 
• Participants will leave the workshop with an arsenal of plug-and-play resources and lesson plans to implement in their classrooms. 

Instructors

Arnaldo Cardona, ASLA 

Cardona is a retired special education, bilingual, art teacher, and landscape architect. While working as a teacher in New York, Cardona launched his own design-build business. He has been an ASLA member since 2005 and was a member of ASLA’s Committee on Education. Currently, Cardona is a Teacher Supervisor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Art Education Department where he observes future teachers and reflects with them on effective teaching practices. Cardona is the author of two books, K-12 Architecture Education (2022) and K-12 Landscape Architecture Education (2021). Cardona's first Bachelors degree was a pre-professional degree in architecture from the University of Puerto Rico. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Landscape Architecture and Masters in Education from City College of New York. He also holds a Masters in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Cardona’s Graduate research was in the areas of balanced literacy, critical thinking, portfolio assessment and interdisciplinary curricula that use architecture and the urban landscape as central themes.  

Taylor Metz, ASLA 

Taylor Metz is a landscape architect and Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Ball State University. Holding a Master of Landscape Architecture from Ball State and a degree in Communication Studies and Art from Gustavus Adolphus College, Taylor specializes in educational landscapes, schoolyard design, and design thinking. His teaching and research emphasize design pedagogy, advocacy, and innovative, learner-centered educational environments. Committed to advancing the field of landscape architecture, Taylor focuses on creating impactful, inspiring spaces that foster learning, play, and engagement. 

Miranda Mote, ASLA 

Miranda Mote is the Garden Club of America / Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize, Landscape Architecture Fellow. She is a historian, artist, and educator based in Philadelphia. Miranda graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati (1995), Master of Design in History and Philosophy of Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (2015) where her thesis was awarded distinction by the faculty, and PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (2021). She has taught at Temple University, Pratt Institute and currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.  

As an artist, she has developed nature printing techniques based on her historical research about the poetics of botanical image making. Her work with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities in 2021 supported her interest in addressing environmental injustice in Philadelphia and the establishment of Botanography, a non-profit that directly serves students in schools of Philadelphia with arts-focused literacy and botany programming. While in residence at the American Academy in Rome, she has been working with children at two schools in Monteverde and the Academy teaching botanical arts and has been developing her own botanical printmaking methods. 

Please direct questions to Lisa J. Jennings, Senior Manager, Career Discovery and Diversity at ljennings@asla.org.