Student interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Urban and Regional Planning, clip 9 of 13

Abstract

Brief excerpt from interview: My relationship with students changed because we did a group project at the end of the semester, and she assigned the group members. It changed my relationship with the campus and the city because I understand it more . . . About 1/3 of the class was from architecture, and we would all group together, if she did not separate us, and then you would have a vast difference between groups--for example groups with people who had never designed anything . . . We all had the same topic: an imaginary city with a description of the problems, and you get to build office space, retail space, community space, and living space . . . You get a box of Leggos, and physically you get a big board with the plan of the neighborhood, and you get to stack up and build your little buildings, and your group is divided up into jobs: a city planner, a neighborhood liaison, city liaison, financial analyst. We put it in front of a Board of community members--I think they were City Planners . . . I do see my major or educational experience differently as a result of the course--I see my major as more important to the city as a whole, I see architecture as part of the system of a city, not just one building.