We live in a designed world, for better or worse, so the big question is how do we train design students to appreciate and design with landscape systems for the most resilient design solutions? Through our research we are most interested how the experience of place impacts undergraduate understanding of diverse habitats, landscape systems, and contextual architecture for long-lasting, memorable learning.

A pilot study was done by taking students to Crosby Arboretum for a short, immersive learning experience about local ecosystems. We used pre- and post-surveys to ascertain students’ knowledge of the ecologies, their attitudes and expectations about the ecologies, their general level of connection to natural systems, and their confidence level in communicating their thoughts about place through written and graphic methods. While onsite, students participated in a workshop where the instructor taught them how to see and interpret the surrounding landscape through watercolors, a medium students had not yet used in their classes. The surveys revealed that the immersion was indeed impactful. Prior to the immersion, students either could not list more than a few, if any, plant species they expected to see or their answers were quite vague (“big trees,” “swamp plants”). Post immersion most students were able to recall at least seven to ten plant species unique to the arboretum. Capturing the landscape through watercolors allowed one student to “see the depth and soul of what [she] was painting,” while another student “saw more details in the structures and different colors in plant materials.” One student reported that painting “definitely forced me to slow down and actually see the place you’re in.” This was interesting because researchers anticipated students would focus on learning the skill of watercolor, but they immediately understood how that medium impacted their understanding of the landscape.

Building on this early work and delving deeper into graphic and communication skill building, and greater contextual awareness with a larger sample and a control group another study was done. Study participants were student volunteers from all levels of an undergraduate Landscape Architecture program. Half of the group received typical studio instruction; the other half were immersed in an onsite, active, and experiential art skills workshop again at Crosby Arboretum.

Before the immersive experience, both sets of students read a published work about the typical ecosystems found at Crosby Arboretum and generated graphic images from slides. They then interpreted the landscapes and described them in their own words. Half the participants traveled to the arboretum and participated in 3 place-based workshops led by professional artists and landscape architects and one conceptual design activity. The other half remained on campus in the traditional studio setting and completed similar activities.

Graphics were collected and evaluated for both sets of participants. Graphics from both groups were evaluated based on rubrics. Descriptive writing was also collected and evaluated. Word clouds were generated for both groups showing differences in lexicon and conceptual understanding after the exercises. Like in the pilot study, students came away from the experiential learning with a richer understanding of the ecologies, improved graphic communication skills, and a superior lexicon than those in the control group.

Keywords: Education, Place, Experiential Learning.