Olathe East Environmental Design
A 21st Century Program

ENVD Teachers In New York



Olathe East’s Environmental Design teachers, Lee Sappingfield and Barbara Nikoo-Manesh, along with 18 educators from across the nation, were selected to attend the Summer Design Institute at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC this summer.

Participants received training on best practices for design-integration in the classroom curriculum. These teachers will share experiences and then create design-focused lesson plans and activities aligned to the National Standards that will be officially launched nationwide during National Design Week. To evaluate the effectiveness of this content, Cooper-Hewitt will follow these teachers as they integrate these lessons in their own classrooms.

In conjunction with Summer Design Institute, Mr. Sappingfield and Mrs. Nikoo-Manesh participated in the City of Neighborhoods workshop, where they explored Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall. After examining the complex web of user demographics and impressions, patterns of behavior on the street, and the evolution of development, educators brainstormed how to use the design lessons of this dynamic environment to develop lesson plans and curriculum ideas for engaging youth in civic awareness and community change both inside and outside the classroom, using the assets of their home neighborhoods.