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Austin Vandepoll Ms. Hinnant ENGL 1102 030 4/9/14 The Influence of Classroom: Ethnography of Freshman Architect Majors at UNCC Architect Majors have a very different classroom environment then other students do at UNCC. Their studio class starts out in one large lecture room in which the students are very spread out, and then the students switch over to a large, open, cluttered, and noisy workshop room about forty minutes into their three and a half hour class. The workshop room may be large but the students are very close to each other throughout the class. Switching from the lecture room to the workshop room gives the students very different settings. Both environments cause distractions for the students, or they create a more productive and beneficial learning environment. My desire is to specifically see how the space in which they work affects their productivity and the ways in which they learn. The freshman students begin their studio class at 2:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The class lasts all the way until 5:30 pm. They start out in a very large room; much too large for the amount of students participating in the class. The room has two entrance doors from the back of the room and two exit doors with glowing exit signs in the front of the room. Entering the room, it feels as if one is walking into a movie theater that has been converted into a classroom for lectures. The room contains about one hundred fifty or more chairs in it, it has very tall ceilings with bright lights, and it has a giant screen in the front of it for power points and videos. Right below the enormous screen is a stage and a podium-like structure in the right

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corner of the platform. After about 30-45 minutes students will then transfer over to their studio room which is a completely different and odd environment in itself. I observed architect majors during their Friday studio class at UNCC. Students generally arrive 10-15 minutes before class begins. During this period of time the rooms noise level begins to increase pretty rapidly. All of the students seem to be very acquainted with each other and many sit together in pretty close knit groups. Many students are also yelling each others names across the room to each other. Several different conversations can be heard bouncing off the walls of the large classroom; ranging from movies, food, or any common day experiences. Most predominantly, many students discuss the assignment from the previous lecture. They ask whether one thing is right, if their friends were able to finish, or when did they finally finish it and go to sleep. A lot of students come into class bringing fruit, drinks, and other assorted snacks. The students seem almost more prepared for lunch time then the actual class to start. At almost exactly 2pm, the teacher walks in but the noise level decreases just slightly. One student tells me, The teachers are really chill and cool here. The atmosphere feels very free in this classroom. When class is starting, the room is about 1/3 of the way full, yet all the students are here. It gives the room a sense of emptiness, even though there are a good number of students there. This emptiness gives students a free feeling. They seem to take advantage of the emptiness through clustering in small groups with friends throughout the room. These clusters can consist of talking and playful distractions among the students, but they also can be helpful for advice within the small group. The teacher begins the lecture by passing out assignment sheets for their projects. A student tells me, We have to turn in a big project every 3 days. Its terrible The lecture then begins and the room is much more silent. It seems like the environment will be very controlled

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and maintained at this time. Instead of control and focus, many students seem to become very disconnected as soon as the teacher begins to speak. They seem to be staring off into space or whispering quietly to each other. Students say things like, Let the boredom begin or And now we wait for him to stop talking. Many students complain to each other about sleep deprivation and how they just cant stay awake. They talk a lot about how excited they will be to just go to sleep, while others jokingly say, Good luck trying to get some sleep with this assignment. A select few students seem to actually be engaged into the lecture and are righting down notes in their journals. Students are continually distracted by their friends poking them with pens or offering them food or drinks. About forty minutes into the lecture, the teacher turned off the PowerPoint and dismissed the students. The students then began packing up their bags and standing up. A student tells me that we are heading to the studio room where the actual fun is. I was really curious at this point. We walk into the studio workshop room and it can only be described as pure organized chaos. The students have an easily visible changing mindset as we enter this new room. Ever student has their own work table, and each one is extremely cluttered and messy. The tables contain all sorts of various supplies and objects. Lying on top of the tables are all sorts of cardboard constructions and papers with drawings or digital sketches on them. All of the tables also have lamps and also cutting boards with different angles on them. Each student also has various things placed underneath their work tables. You can see sandwich and drink coolers, pillows, cardboard piles, boxes with pencils and paper, sleeping bags, and just about everything one needs for a long day of working. Some students even have fridges and microwaves plugged into the floor outlets. You would almost think they live here. The room is very open and bright. The studio is a giant rectangular workspace connected to a hallway. The studio has very high

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ceilings with large bright lights on it. It is also not separated from the hallway by any doors, making it seem even more open. The room contains giant windows that practically make up the entire back wall of this enormous room. Every remaining wall in sight has either a billboard, chalk board, or some kind of board to write or pin things up on. The floor consists of a dark gray color and seems to remain fairly messy with wood shavings, bits of cardboard, dirt, and the occasional stray pen or pencil lying around somewhere. The giant rectangular room is separated into three smaller rectangular areas. The walls do not go all the way to the ceiling, making them appear similar to those of a cubicle or a stall. This room contains first, second, and third year architecture students. Each year has their own large open space to work in within the three separating walls. The students appear more excited before, and more willing to learn. This open and free setting allows them to interact with the room and each other very differently than before. Class is still going on, but now they are in the workshop studio room. There are 4 freshman studio classes and all of them gather in this room at the same time, generating a lot of noise. Once entering the room the teachers of the four classes seem to just talk for a little bit while the students get settled into the room. Many of the students dont actually seem to go to their work table, but instead, they roam around the room and migrate around one of their friends tables. At this point there are about 2-5 students at one students table having casual conversation. Some play games where they are singing each others names instead of just saying hello. It seems like a very free and playful environment and it doesnt seem like its about to change in anyway. The room just has hundreds of little models that the students have built. Many of the students walk over to another classs corner of the room and show off their models to each other. They all seem incredibly proud of their projects and are very willing to show them off to people.

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Each group I went to had someone wanting to show me a model they had designed. I dont blame them though. Many of them put in about twelve hours or more of work into their projects. In my interview, the student said to me, The work load is very taxing on us and it requires a very critical and different thought process. Its much more than just drawing a building, there is a large amount of work that goes into it. After about ten minutes of mayhem, the teachers all separate and go to their individual corners of their room space. The teacher then calls his students toward a large pin-board at the corner of the room. The students all picked up a chair in sight and took it over to the teacher and made a half circle around him. This was a question, answer, and discussion time for the class. The teacher reviewed over the assignment from the lecture and took any questions that the students may have had from it. Many students found the lecture to be very vague, so I found it surprising that the students didnt ask many questions pertaining to the lecture at all. After the questions and answers, the teacher then told the students he would be leaving for about two hours but that they needed to pin-up their assignments from Wednesday by 4:30. This blew my mind that the teacher would leave them alone for so long. The teacher then left and the students dispersed back to their work tables. I thought the students would be frantically getting their things together to turn in by 4:30 but instead they went back to clustering around desks and joking around a little bit. There were still several students that seemed very serious and began making finishing touches on the assignment that needed to be turned in by 4:30. The students asked more questions about the lecture among each other rather than the teacher. They really seem to be greatly influenced by student based learning. I found that there were three types of students in the room at this time. There were those who immediately blocked everything out to be able to finish their work. They typically would put in headphones to drain out the noise of

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their talkative friends. These students would typically be very project based. They wished to avoid the distractions of their friends scattered around the room. Then, there were those who worked well together as groups. They would bounce off ideas amongst each other for the assignment to see what would work best. These types of students actually seemed to produce results and get their projects finished quicker than the individual. The group discussion allowed for ideas to spread that members of the group previously didnt think of as an individual. Lastly, there were those students that would gather around and joke around. They seemed pretty easily distracted. I could see some getting stuck on YouTube videos, some just telling jokes, and others would just sit there and relax with their friends. This type of student would occur either when a group would get bored, or accidentally break free from their project at hand. The students considered this time to either be really bad because they had more trouble getting work done, but it was also considered a very vital part of the students day to get a mental breather. In one of my interviews with a student, I asked him how much friends affect his productivity during class. He said to me, It frankly depends on the time of day, and how energetic we are. If someone just finished lunch and have gotten to walk around, theyre normally very energetic and can at times be a bit bothersome. Friends can be a great resource for helping with assignments and keeping me on track, but at the same time, we may get caught up in a game of ninja from time to time. Friends are definitely the greatest asset here since the teachers can be very vague at times. You just have to try to not get too distracted. The first thing that comes to my mind when Im observing the architect major students is one of those giant crazy families. With how the room is set up, the students all get to know each other well since its very simple to just walk a few feet to another class of students. The room allows the students to grab different perspectives on assignments from so many different

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students. All of the students take advantage of this casual freeing environment. Students are constantly moving around pushing chairs out of the way and moving to different tables. Around the room are assortments of drawers that are constantly being opened and closed. These drawers seem to predominantly contain large pieces of paper for sketch work. Along with that noise, there is constant slicing of cardboard and paper on the cutting boards. It sounds like an orchestra of office supplies at times. Students on occasions run low on cardboard to construct their projects, but no one minds giving up some of their cardboard to help one of their family members out. The crazy environment that is the freshman studio class, definitely allows students to grow closer and to interact with each other. Almost every student is helping another one out throughout the entire class. Its not always the loving affection of a family in the studio class though. Sometimes the students get into a pranking streak. Giving a bunch of college students craft supplies can get a little crazy at times. With no teacher present at times, students are continuously walking in and out of the room to either use the bathroom or get some kind of snack. One student was telling me stories of how his friend decided to glue some of his pens, rulers, and pencil holders to his desk when he went to the bathroom. In return, he decided to retaliate by applying sticky notes to his friends entire desk. The setting can definitely relate to the personalities of a home environment, both the good and the bad sides. The architect majors are certainly not shy. During observations, many of the students would approach me and have conversations with me as if I had known them for years. They would include me in games they played, like ninja, or random singing games. The group is actually very friendly and welcoming of others. I can see how people may struggle to get work done at times, because almost everyone here is pretty outgoing and talkative amongst each other. It can also be a good morale booster to have so many people willing to help and talk with you about anything under the sun. The

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distractions of friends and other students can cause very negative and anti-productive effects on the students, but can also influence them greatly to reach toward their goals and projects at hand, both in and outside of class. The students here in the architect department are certainly a different type of student. They know very well how to balance between work and play. Being an architect major is a huge collaboration with the environment and everything coming along with it. Knowing how to work as a group is a vital part of being an architect major at UNCC. The teachers refer to a good architect as being a very well rounded person. Working in groups allows the students to obtain many different perspectives, and also allows them to adapt in difficult, distracting environments. Also, managing ones time plays a huge role in how well and quickly the work will get done. The students at this program have told me countlessly that they stay in the building from till after midnight trying to finish their projects. The students may cut up every now and then but they know they need to get the job done in the end. I dont feel like they are joking with each other to just mess around and waste time, but instead to take a break from the never ending amount of work they have to do.

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Interview 1. How much do friends affect how productive you are? a. Friends can be a great resource, but other times they can be the greatest distraction. It mostly depends on the time of day and how tired everyone is. On occasions we may get caught up in computer games or games of ninja, but other times thy can really help with a project. 2. Do you get more help from students or teachers? Why? a. Definitely the students. Teachers often give vague information that I feel is intended to make us ask each other for help. 3. Is it difficult having class with four other freshman classes? a. I think its very resourceful to have four other classes of students to ask for help from. It may cause a lot of noise but its pretty easy to tune it out. 4. What is the most difficult part of being an architect major? a. There are many difficult factors to it. The work load is very taxing on us and it requires a very critical and different thought process. Its much more than just drawing a building, there is a large amount of work that goes into it.

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Works Cited Jacob. Personal Interview. 24 February 2014.