Inspire Volume 9 Issue 1

VOLUME 9 | ISSUE 1 SPRING 2019

C OV ER S TO RY

By Heather Sauer

40 YEARS of DESIGN

College renews focus on interdisciplinary collaboration “When I became dean, some of my most rewarding conversations with faculty, staff and students were about creating a common story: ‘Everything you see, every minute of every day, is likely the product of disciplines that live, work and play together under one roof in the College of Design,’” said Luis Rico-Gutierrez, who joined the college as its fourth dean in July 2009.

“This is not something I invented; it is the result of the university’s decision four decades ago to bring all of our disciplines together in the same college, and builds on the work of my predecessors. What I found when I arrived was that the idea needed new focus, and that has guided many of our activities since then.”

The Iowa State University College of Design opened in fall 1978 as the new home of four departments from different colleges — Architecture (College of Engineering); Applied Art, renamed Art and Design (from what is now the College of Human Sciences); Community and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture (both from what is now the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences).

The premise, and promise, was to provide an environment where these departments could collaborate in teaching, research, scholarship and creative endeavors.

From the beginning, interdisciplinary collaboration has been one of the college’s greatest opportunities and one of its greatest challenges. A consistent concern: how to nurture each discipline’s identity and strengths while encouraging cooperation and cross-pollination.

“Before the college was formed, all the faculty looked at the big picture.

As soon as it became a reality, the focus became more complex; everyone looked at uniqueness and differences,

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and it was an effort to bring people together in interdisciplinary work while maintaining their disciplinal identities,” said Rabindra Mukerjea.

Now a professor of landscape architecture and executive director emeritus of strategic planning and assessment at Purdue University, Mukerjea joined the Iowa State architecture faculty as an assistant professor in 1971. He went on to serve as assistant and acting chair of the architecture department as well as associate dean for academic programs (1983-95) and interim dean (1984-85 and 1992-94) of the College of Design.

“Initially there were many operational issues that had to be sorted out while we attempted to expand the focus. And the levels of resources had been very different for the departments coming into the college, so we had to work through how to do things in a collaborative way when there were those discrepancies,” he said.

Curricular innovations Early initiatives included the undergraduate Design Studies program, established in 1980. It consisted of interdisciplinary courses open to all students in the College of Design. Today, Design Studies remains an umbrella designator for inter- and multidisciplinary coursework, including the first-year Core Design Program, option studios and minors in design studies, digital media and critical studies in design.

The Core program and option studios — both still key parts of the college — were two curricular innovations under professor and dean emeritus Mark Engelbrecht, the college’s longest-serving dean to date (1994-2009).

“The Core was based on the old Bauhaus idea where all disciplines started with a

1978

common foundation and then branched into different areas of specialization.

Students develop a shared language and skill set and learn about all of the disciplines, which better prepares them for their chosen program of study,” Engelbrecht said.

The LEED Platinum-certified King Pavilion, a nearly 24,000-square-foot addition to the college that opened in fall 2009, brought together Core students and upper-level students in a common space. It was Engelbrecht’s vision that students from all design programs be integrated in the same work area, creating opportunities for collaboration.

“The option studios were another way of working across the disciplinary boundaries. I thought we needed a mechanism where people who wanted to work together could do so in an intentional way,” Engelbrecht said.

Over the years, faculty with shared interests often sought each other out to offer courses together, a process now formalized through option studios offered each spring to advanced undergraduate and graduate students across the college.

Partnership of equals Building on the promise made 40 years ago, the College of Design has continued to evolve and grow. For a small college, financial constraints are an ongoing reality, which has required some creative approaches to move forward.

When Rico-Gutierrez arrived in 2009, the country was in a deep recession.

The college had responded accordingly, tightening its belt once more and

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2018 1991 Rome Program first offered

1993 Institute for Design Research & Outreach established

streamlining its administrative and support services.

“I really believe collaboration is a partnership of equals; you can’t have collaboration if people are not on common ground. The existing structure and resource model seemed to me to be obstacles for collaboration, and I invited my new colleagues in the college to help me find a solution,” Rico-Gutierrez said.

In what might be seen as a radical move, he disbanded the four departments and appointed an interim director for each discipline. After a two-year trial run, in 2012, the college expanded to seven departments under a reorganization plan approved by the Iowa Board of Regents.

The new structure retained the original departments of architecture, community and regional planning and landscape architecture. Four new departments were created from programs previously in the Department of Art and Design: graphic design, industrial design (approved in 2010), interior design and integrated studio arts.

The goal was to make every discipline more visible while creating opportunities for increased collaboration among students and faculty across departments, Rico-Gutierrez said. The reorganization also was intended to help foster interdisciplinary programs such as the

1997 Design Exchange learning community established

2004 Core Design Program initiated

bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary design (approved in 2011) and more recent additions like the graduate programs in urban design and sustainable environments, and the hybrid master’s in real estate development offered jointly with the Ivy College of Business.

“Some people were concerned that making all the disciplines their own departments would cause them to focus inward and discourage collaboration.

The opposite has been true,” he said.

“The new structure has empowered faculty from all departments to seek opportunities for collaborative, interdisciplinary teaching, research and outreach.”

The challenge for the next 40 years is to further capitalize on the college’s strengths as a comprehensive design school and bring the disciplines together to solve some of the most important social, economic and environmental issues the world faces today, Rico-Gutierrez says.

“Technological, social and political changes will have a profound effect on all of our disciplines. The way professionals interact with clients, each other, problems and communities will change. We’re doing the right thing in preparing our students with disciplinary strength but also the intellectual agility to adapt very quickly to whatever the changes are going to be.”

2012 College reorganized into 7 departments

SAVE THE DATE

DESIGN

WEEK Take part in the college’s 40th anniversary celebration by sharing your success story and participating in events throughout Design Week, April 8-12.

Planned events include: • (d)innovation Symposium • Give Back Day • Wearables Design Show • Awards Day • Design student club activities • Interactive online alumni showcase Look for details on our website, social media and Designotes alumni e-blast.

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I N T ER N AT I O NAALU LM S TNU I OO F I L E ID PR

By Heather Sauer

JOSHUA KURNIA

By Heather Sauer

Experience designer combines storytelling, management skills Joshua Theodorus Kurnia’s work day often begins before he leaves his onebedroom Silicon Valley apartment.

He fires up his Macbook and scans his email inbox while planning and prioritizing tasks for the day.

A 20-minute drive then finds him at the Googleplex, Google’s global headquarters in Mountain View, California, where he grabs a to-go breakfast from one of the 30 cafes and heads to his office building on the 3.1 million-square-foot campus.

After drafting and responding to dozens of messages — “project management is a lot of communication” — he often logs onto a videoconference meeting with project stakeholders in Europe or South America. Later, he might call in to a design review session from one of the office’s lounges, followed by an art and creative direction meeting and a

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budget/schedule discussion for any of his projects across the globe.

He typically leaves at 4 to work out and gets back online at home around 8 or 9 p.m. to wrap up tasks and plan for what’s next.

The bigger picture As a senior at Iowa State, Kurnia (BArch 2017 Architecture) led the team that won the 2017 Walt Disney Imagineering Imaginations Design Competition (see Spring 2017 Inspire). He interned at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, from January to May that year while finishing his architecture degree, and after graduation transferred to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California, for a second, seven-month internship.

“I had always wanted to work there, and this was an amazing opportunity that led to tremendous growth for me,” he said.

“Within Disney I worked with so many people from disciplines that conventional architecture fields don’t usually interact with, from script writing to show lighting to sound engineering to marketing and even merchandising, which really contributed to me being able to see the bigger picture.”

Both positions provided project management experience — the first for hotel room renovation at Disney World and the second for the design and production of attractions for the newly announced Marvel-themed “land” at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, as well as Marvel attractions at other Disney parks.

“It’s like playing a chess game with all these different pieces, and as the project management/production team, you’re the ones who make them come together. I really enjoyed it. I like it

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when I’m challenged to juggle different responsibilities,” Kurnia said.

Professional connections No full-time jobs were available with Walt Disney Imagineering when his internship ended, so last January Kurnia moved to an experience design firm called Thinkwell Group in Los Angeles to produce and manage multiple theme parks and museum projects.

Kurnia supports a global team to develop new centers and expand, update or introduce new exhibits and interactive elements in these spaces.

“They vary in scope and size, but the goal is to create those “wow” moments for guests, to embody and showcase the Google magic in a tangible, built space.

It’s really about telling the story of Google in the physical world that you can touch, see and experience,” he said.

While he’s taken a less traditional path, Kurnia appreciates how much his architecture background helps him in his job.

“I’m not doing the AutoCAD drawings or Revit modeling, but I keep changing perspectives between the 2D and 3D in my everyday tasks, Opposite: Kurnia poses with Android Pie on Google’s Mountain View campus. Above: The Google Partner Plex in asking ‘What is Sao Paolo, Brazil, is one of his current projects. the story? How do All photos courtesy of Joshua Kurnia. people interact in the space? What are the Eight months later, he found himself experience and the emotions evoked?’” unemployed. he said.

“I didn’t necessarily want to move on that quickly, but some significant changes in their staffing plan forced me to leave in August. Through professional connections in the industry, I learned about a contracthire opening at the Google Experience Studio in Mountain View,” he said.

“I work with software engineers as well as architects, interior designers, creative technologists, AV media designers and experience design professionals.

I constantly find myself being the bridge that connects the creative with the technical, which I really enjoy.”

A video interview got him that position with Google. “I hope it leads to something permanent. In the meantime, I enjoy what I do and I’m learning exponentially.”

The story of a space

Unconventional path

“Kevin Owens (lecturer in architecture and interdisciplinary design) introduced me to the world of storytelling and experience design.

He has been an amazing mentor, and he guided our project group for the Disney Imaginations competition.

He gave valuable advice about career development, professional etiquette and, quite frankly, life. He is the reason why I can be where I am today.”

In his new role, Kurnia helps with the design and production of Google Experience Centers — highly interactive physical spaces infused with cuttingedge Google technologies and exhibits, used to host and inspire Google clients and partners. The company has several experience centers in California as well as New York, Brazil, France, Ireland, Japan and Singapore.

Two Iowa State mentors were key to helping him prepare for the work he’s doing, Kurnia said.

Cameron Campbell (BArch 1997 / MArch 2003 Architecture), senior associate dean and associate professor of architecture, was Kurnia’s first architecture studio professor. He also taught Kurnia’s architectural photography class and the healthcare option studio he took in his fourth year of study. “[Campbell] always emphasized storytelling and how to tell the story of a space to users. That trained me to always think about the guest experience and how the design narrative carries the whole project from the very start,” Kurnia said.

“When we were working on the Imaginations competition, I remember thinking back to my architecture studios, how we presented concepts, what essential emotions we aimed to evoke with the design of built spaces and how to tell the story of a space. I use the same storytelling mindset when I develop projects for Google.”

Unique creative niche Kurnia’s own story is evolving.

Originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, he’s in the process of becoming a US citizen. His sister, Isabella, attends community college nearby, and they enjoy exploring the Bay Area together.

Flexible work hours and location mean he’s not tied to the Mountain View headquarters — he recently spent a week at Google’s New York City office and a couple of days at the new Playa Vista office in Los Angeles.

Kurnia has joined a nondenominational church whose members include young families and single millennials, many of whom work for the tech industry or in higher education. An avid singer and musician — he studied classical piano growing up in Indonesia and sang with the Iowa Statesmen as a freshman at ISU — he recently auditioned for an a capella group at Google.

“When I was studying architecture in college, I discovered I don’t think I’d enjoy doing conventional architecture and working in an architecture firm. I’m really grateful that I found this unique creative niche inside the themed entertainment and experience design industry, which relies on design and architecture in a much broader way.”

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N TI ER ATRI O NER A LSSHTI P UDIO C O L L A B O RIAT V E NPA TN

By Heather Sauer

ANALOG + D I G I TA L

Above: Shelby Doyle, Ingrid Lilligren, Erin Hunt and Kelly Devitt created the vases, bottom, for ISU President Wendy Wintersteen’s intallation dinner.

Group photo by Christopher Gannon.

Vase photos by Kelly Devitt.

Multidisciplinary team combines artistry, technology The object is roughly three inches tall, three inches at its widest point, adorned with rope-like loops cascading in an ombre effect from matte green at the top to lavender in the middle to cornflower blue at the base.

The small stoneware vessel — one of 80 commemorative vases created for guests at Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen’s installation dinner last September — represents the integration of custom-made glazes with computational designs and ceramic threedimensional printing. It is the product of a multidisciplinary collaboration between the Departments of Architecture and Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State.

Well before they were asked to create mementos for Wintersteen’s installation, the team of Shelby Doyle, Erin Hunt (BArch 2017 Architecture), Kelly Devitt (BFA 2017 Integrated Studio Arts) and Ingrid Lilligren had been working to

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marry traditional and digital fabrication processes and push the boundaries of 3D printing with clay.

“Clay’s plasticity makes it an ideal material for exploring the complex geometries made possible by digital tools, and Iowa State is one of the few places with the expertise, the space, the equipment and the interest in doing this,” said Doyle, an assistant professor of architecture and cofounder of the ISU Computation and Construction Lab (CCL). “We’re not the first to create a 3D-printed vase, but to be able to do that in collaboration with ceramic artists is really exciting.”

Clay + code The partnership began when the CCL acquired a PotterBot 3D printer. Hunt was hired as an undergraduate research assistant to help develop tools and methods for its use. Working closely with Devitt — a ceramics studio assistant who was also hired by the CCL — she learned

how to use a pug mill (a machine for mixing and working clay) to remove air bubbles and improve the clay’s consistency before loading it into the printer.

“If the clay is too wet, it will come out but not hold the form as it’s printing, and if it’s too stiff it can get stuck or even break the printer components,” said Devitt, who has continued as an assistant to both Lilligren and Doyle since graduation. “Being able to feel the clay and know if it will work or not is important.”

Another critical task was finding the right software and creating the code to guide the printer. Hunt — now the architecture department’s computation and construction associate — spent significant time learning to create tools

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and workflows using Grasshopper 3D, a visual programming language for Rhinoceros 3D, a computer-aided design software. At the same time, Doyle designed and 3D printed custom plastic nozzles for the PotterBot to see how different shapes would affect its output.

80 unique designs Last spring, Lilligren, chair of the art and visual culture department, was asked to serve on the presidential installation planning committee. At a meeting with committee chair Olivia Madison, dean emerita of library services, the conversation turned to mementos for guests at the dinner preceding the installation ceremony. What would make a meaningful gift?

“I mentioned I’d been working with Shelby, Erin and Kelly to explore the potential of the ceramic 3D printer, and I shared the prototypes that had just been fired and the research I’d been doing on cone 6 glazes,” Lilligren said.

“Olivia made the connection with University Museums’ Iowa College Pottery collection and thought a vase would be a great gift. We visited the Brunnier [Art Museum] to look at the pottery and I took reference photos, which I used to develop 10 glazes based on the colors in that collection.”

Rather than multiple identical forms, the team decided to design 80 unique vases. The process began with developing algorithms to create a digital 3D model of each vase; from these models, code was produced that directed the PotterBot to deposit clay in layers to produce the vase.

“From five definitions or algorithms we were able to produce the variety of patterns on the vases, and then glaze them differently to highlight those geometries,” Doyle said. “No two are exactly alike.”

Pushing the limits The project involved continual back and forth among the four women.

“We had a lot of discussion with Ingrid about how much of the vase’s surface should be covered in loops and did a lot of testing to get the proportions and sizes right. Shelby helped us figure out layer heights and compression rates for printing, and shrinkage rates when the clay was fired to be sure the vases were watertight and wouldn’t tip over,” said Hunt, who developed the code and worked with Devitt to design the vases.

“We tried to push the limits of the forms and the clay; a lot of vases collapsed because they’re so small and heavy with such intricate details,” Devitt said. “When we reached that sweet spot, where we could get those extreme patterns that are the wow factors and the vases held together, it was really exciting.”

Once Lilligren had developed the glazes, the team tested how they worked over and under each other so they could glaze each vase with two colors and achieve a third color where they overlapped. The completed vases were dried, fired, glazed and fired again. The resulting collection “connects advances in ceramic technology with its history at ISU,” they said in the printed scroll that accompanied each vase home with its recipient.

through that project to produce “WAFT” — a series of computationally designed, multi-density clay tile prototypes printed on the Potterbot, then draped over CNCmilled molds in a traditional process known as slumping.

The project was exhibited at the ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) conference in Mexico City last October. The next steps will be the development of custom surface treatments and the design of parametrically-controlled glazing patterning to explore the evaporative cooling potential of clay for architectural facades, Doyle says.

“Doing a project that so effectively knits together analog and digital processes is indicative of the learning that can take place in future classes and collaborations,” Lilligren said. “We’ll be looking at ways to bring our students together through interdisciplinary projects.”

“These vases are a beautiful representation of Iowa State University’s culture of multidisciplinary collaboration and the synergy of artistic creation and technological innovation,” Wintersteen said. “I am especially honored that this talented team of women produced these stunning pieces to commemorate my installation as the first woman president of Iowa State.”

Continued collaboration The vase project served as a springboard for continued collaboration. Doyle, Hunt and Devitt used the techniques developed

The team used parametric design to control the porosity, depth and surface curvature of each WAFT tile. Photo by Christopher Gannon.

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C O L L A B O R AT I V E S T U D I O

DESIGN for CLIMATE CHANGE

By Heather Sauer

Students use geodesign tools to evaluate proposed solutions

Alternative energy co-ops. Closed-loop agriculture. Agroforestry. These are some of the climate change solutions three College of Design courses generated as part of the International Geodesign Collaboration (IGC) Challenge.

The challenge brought together nearly 60 universities on six continents, each using the same geodesign framework for case studies examining climate change in different settings. The goal is to increase sharing, comparison and mutual learning across institutions and nations to solve pressing societal and environmental challenges resulting from climate change.

Alenka Poplin, assistant professor of community and regional planning, leads the initiative at Iowa State University and heads a larger IGC research group that’s looking at agricultural innovations to address climate change effects. Last fall, she and two landscape architecture faculty, professor Julia Badenhope and assistant professor Caroline Westort, tasked students with developing alternative agricultural and energy solutions for Iowa through the IGC Challenge.

Poplin’s geodesign class selected a 20-square-kilometer study area and Badenhope’s advanced landscape 8

architectural design studio chose a 40-square-kilometer study area, both centered on the city of Grinnell, Iowa, and surrounding agricultural land.

Westort’s graduate capstone studio focused on farms in six landform regions of Iowa — including one near Grinnell — which she saw “as an extension of and zoom-in from the IGC structure.”

“Grinnell provides an interesting contrast between the urban and agricultural land, which is geographically close and yet far away in terms of its connection with the community,” Poplin said. “The sustainability efforts of Grinnell College provide a chance to connect with them in building knowledge and expertise.”

At the beginning of fall semester, the Iowa State classes held a climate change symposium with Grinnell College students and faculty to gain a better understanding of what it means for Grinnell and identify specific issues they could focus on. ISU students also visited a local organic farm, the Conard Environmental Research Area — a Grinnell College field station 11 miles from campus — and geothermal heating installations at Grinnell College.

They met with the county conservation district’s watershed coordinator and

the city planner as well as members of Solutions in the Land, an organization that provides sustainable agriculture and land management planning services, to learn what the challenges, resources and opportunities were for alternative approaches.

Renewable energy “We received a lot of valuable input and feedback over the semester, which really helped us understand what exists and where we could make a difference,” said Jason Becker, a junior in community and regional planning from Omaha and a member of Poplin’s class. Her students used a new software application called GeoPlanner for ArcGIS to develop the three scenarios (early adapter, late adapter and non-adapter) the IGC framework outlined for their proposals for the future of Grinnell.

Becker’s team focused on opportunities to expand renewable energy sources, including solar roads and parking lots; residential and industrial geothermal installations for city buildings like the library and fire department; and bioenergy systems like plug flow digesters that process manure and food waste into biogas, which can be used to generate electricity to power farm operations.

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“It’s pretty costly to individual farmers, but we proposed a co-op so that multiple farms could contribute and split the electricity generated,” said teammate Britney Markhardt, a sophomore in community and regional planning from Belleville, Wisconsin.

completely different set of variables to design for,” said Riley Dunn, a fifth-year landscape architecture student from Martensdale, Iowa. “We were tasked with identifying places around Grinnell where current land-use practices are not profitable or are highly suitable

the existing farms and their operations, before proposing comprehensive redesigns that incorporated different best management practices (BMPs) — like wetlands and buffer strips — to mitigate climate change impacts. The parametric models of the BMPs enabled farmers to evaluate the pros and cons of the designs — both the look and feel of BMPs on the property as well as their measured impacts on factors like runoff and erosion.

Rosie Manzo, a graduate landscape architecture student from Hudson, Massachusetts, analyzed a 150-acre plot of land on a 1,000-acre corn-and-soybean farm near Arlington, Iowa. She wanted to diversify the crops to provide other avenues of income while helping reduce their environmental impact.

When she discovered orchards were once common in that area, she proposed a you-pick orchard with a tallgrass prairie to sequester carbon and a wetland to filter nitrates from field runoff. She replaced existing row crops with sorghum, which provides pheasant habitat that could also be used for hunting.

Opposite: A silvopasture proposed by Rosie Manzo combines livestock production and grazing with the ecological benefits of trees. Above: Students tour the geothermal installations at Grinnell College. Photo by Alenka Poplin.

“We also did a cost-benefit analysis of a geothermal unit and what the payback period would be for residential or industrial uses.”

Synergistic solutions Badenhope challenged her class to “imagine how climate change would affect energy and agriculture systems, and transform unprofitable and climate-damaging practices in ways that are synergistic with human values and the landscape.”

Her students’ diverse range of proposals included the integration of solar panels in highway rights-of-way to power charging stations for electric cars; an aquaculture system integrating tilapia and soybeans; and an upland wetlands project to prevent flooding in periods of high rainfall and provide water for irrigation during droughts, among others.

“As far as geodesign goes, most projects focus on coastline or city, but this was the Iowa countryside, which gave us a

to change, and finding solutions for those areas.”

Dunn determined how much carbon could be captured from the atmosphere and stored using an alley cropping system — rows of trees (chestnuts, pecans and walnuts that could also provide an income) planted with a companion crop like corn in between. She and Badenhope plan to use the same GIS analysis model developed for this project for a followup study of alley cropping on sites with different soil types.

Best management practices Westort’s students used 3D parametric modeling to model agriculture’s impact on climate change in the context of six different farms — one bison, one large dairy and four conventional row crop operations — in different landform regions of the state.

Each student visited an individual farm, interviewed the farmer and took site photos. They then created 3D models of

“It’s interesting to see just how strong an influence large-scale production agriculture has on the culture of Iowa.

One of the biggest things I took from this project is that cultural perceptions are a huge part of design,” Manzo said.

“Saying you need to do this, this and this and you’ll reduce your soil loss and retain nutrients is not going to work if people have been living there for generations and that’s their livelihood.

You need them to buy into it, and you need incentives to help them do that.”

Sharing outcomes Poplin presented Iowa State’s work on the challenge at the IGC 2019 Meeting in Redlands, California, in February. Markhardt, Becker, Poplin and Jamison Brus, a senior in community and regional planning from Gilman, Iowa, shared the work of their geodesign class and Westort presented her graduate studio’s work at the 10th Geodesign Summit, also in Redlands. The students’ participation was made possible by the CRP Interdisciplinary Collaborative Fund established by Patrick (BS 1971 Urban Planning) and Annette Lana.

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NLTLER AT ON OC H CIO A BNO R IAT I VAEL RSETSUEDAI R

By Chelsea Davis

VISUAL CONNECTIONS Sketchnoting pushes students to learn information differently A different way of studying is spreading around Iowa State University.

Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, assistant professor of industrial design, is teaching students sketchnoting to research how this style of note-taking affects learning, particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines. Sketchnoting is an alternative to traditional note-taking, a process of adding visuals to notes in order to cement what students learned and push them to think about the material in a new way.

Over the last three years, PaepckeHjeltness has introduced sketchnoting to about 1,000 students, faculty and staff, including electrical engineering, apparel and merchandising, food science and human nutrition, industrial design and freshman design courses.

Paepcke-Hjeltness, along with Ann Russell, adjunct associate professor 10

of natural resource ecology and management; and Ann Gansemer-Topf, associate professor in the School of Education; received a grant through Iowa State’s Miller Faculty Fellowship Program as part of its mission to “develop innovative approaches to enhance student learning.”

“The idea of dual coding comes into play — that if you combine a visual with words, you’re using the entire brain and not just memorizing,” Paepcke-Hjeltness said. “The information manifests itself differently.”

They worked with Russell’s introductory ecology class last fall. Students were given the option to choose between the typical lecture hall or an experimental team-based learning format, in which they use sketchnoting in their studies.

About 50 students signed up for the experimental class; there were 300 in the lecture.

Using the Miller grant, each student received pens, drawing paper and “module sheets,” which Haley Grote, a senior in industrial design from Carroll, Iowa, created to act as a visual library for students to use while sketching the concepts in each module. Visual libraries include objects, containers, typography and other components that form what Paepcke-Hjeltness calls the “bread and butter” of sketchnoting.

“I’ve always used concept sketching in this class, but I didn’t have a method tied to it,” Russell said. “My students have gained creative confidence through sketchnoting, and my confidence has improved, too. This is especially noteworthy for STEM students, given that few, if any, of their courses address this aspect of creativity.”

Meaningful, not beautiful Paepcke-Hjeltness researches

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inspire Inspire is published twice per year by the Iowa State University College of Design and is mailed to nearly 17,000 alumni and friends.

Newsletter Staff Writer & Editor Heather Sauer Photographers Farshid Assassi, Kelly Devitt, Bob Elbert, Christopher Gannon, Alenka Poplin Graphic Designer Alison Weidemann Contact Us 146 College of Design 715 Bissell Road Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011-1066 inspire@iastate.edu design.iastate.edu Left: Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, assistant professor of industrial design, teaches students sketchnoting, an alternative to traditional note-taking. Above: Students who develop sketchnoting skills better understand and remember concepts. Photos by Christopher Gannon.

sketchnoting as a methodology, taking it around campus to teach faculty in workshops and students in class how to use sketchnoting to improve their lessons and study habits.

Sketchnoting forces a person to fully understand a lesson before they can begin sketching and organizing it on a page.

Sketching a topic requires them to break down the lesson in a different way; seeing it drawn in front of them often leads to visual connections between topics that they otherwise may not have seen.

Paepcke-Hjeltness says it’s important to remember one thing about sketchnoting: “It’s not about being an artist.”

Visualize vs. memorize Paepcke-Hjeltness is particularly interested in bringing sketchnoting to STEM courses such as electrical engineering. While sketchnoting “live” proved difficult due to the fast-paced lectures and complex material, she says the engineering students were able to use sketchnoting in their study notes, which improved comprehension.

“They told me sketchnoting helps them better understand concepts because it requires them to think about how to visualize them instead of just memorizing,” she said.

“Don’t try to make it look beautiful,” she told industrial design students recently.

“Make it meaningful.”

Gansemer-Topf is studying whether sketchnoting in the ecology class “enhances learning” and what “learning” means in this context.

Each person has their own sketchnoting style, and over time will gain confidence in their sketching ability. What’s important is not the artistic quality of the sketches, she says, but whether the sketches translate into improved learning behaviors and retention.

“We often talk about needing more people in STEM fields,” GansemerTopf said. “By incorporating new and effective strategies to understand STEM disciplines, we may also attract a broader range of students who might be interested in STEM.”

Connect With Us facebook.com/CollegeofDesign Instagram: @isucollegeofdesign LinkedIn: Iowa State University – College of Design Alumni Updates Have you married, moved, changed jobs, published or exhibited your work or earned an award? Let us know at http://www.design.iastate.edu/ alumni/share-your-news/.

On the Cover Since it opened in 1978, the College of Design has built on its strengths as a comprehensive design school and continued commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration.

Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. Veteran. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies may be directed to Office of Equal Opportunity, 3410 Beardshear Hall, 515 Morrill Road, Ames, Iowa 50011, Tel. 515 294-7612, Hotline 515-294-1222, email eooffice@iastate.edu

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Office of the Dean 134 College of Design 715 Bissell Road Ames, IA 50011-1066

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Design jointly offers real estate development master’s program Iowa State University’s new Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) is an interdisciplinary, professional degree offered in a blended format of online courses and brief campus residencies, ideal for full-time working professionals.

Jointly created by the College of Design, Ivy College of Business and industry leaders, the program — which can be completed in 21 months — is especially suited for professionals with work experience in a real estate-related field.

“The collaboration between the College of Design and the Ivy College of Business provides a greater breadth of expertise and opportunities for studying real estate with options in areas like historic preservation and sustainable community

development,” said Francis Owusu, chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning.

Areas of study include real estate market analysis, finance, investments, leadership and negotiation, fundamentals of the built environment, construction science and urban planning with an emphasis on current trends and innovations.

Program faculty from the College of Design are Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock and Daniel Kuhlmann, assistant professors of community and regional planning, and Andrea Wheeler, assistant professor of architecture. Executive advisory council members include alumni Steve Foutch (BA 1988 Architecture), CEO of Foutch Brothers in Kansas City, and Don Young

(BS 1976 Landscape Architecture), principal of D. R. Young Associates in San Rafael, California.

Application deadlines are April 1 for summer, July 1 for fall and Dec. 1 for spring. Learn more and apply online at www.ivybusiness.iastate.edu/masters/ mred.