SEED planning tools
Turn course ideas into a connected plan.
Use the Course Blueprint to establish direction, connect activities through a Project Cycle, and plan the next studio experience. Pair each template with a completed Residential Design I example.
Choose the scale you need
Course. Project. Experience.
Course
What are students working toward?
Project Cycle
How will the challenge connect their work?
Weekly experience
What do students need to prepare, practice, and develop next?
A practical planning sequence
Start at the scale of your decision.
The tools support different planning decisions. Begin with the course-level connections when developing a course, or return to a Project Cycle or weekly map when a specific teaching decision needs attention.
Establish the direction of the course.
Use the Blueprint when designing a course or checking how existing assignments fit together. Begin with your approved outcomes, syllabus, briefs, and assessment criteria.
- Clarify purpose and development. Describe what the course prepares students to do and the practices they will develop.
- Connect outcomes with authentic work. Identify the professional practices, challenges, and support that belong in the course.
- Plan evidence and assessment. Identify what students will produce, when they receive feedback, and how the work will be reviewed.
Seven planning elements
Course purpose · Student transformation · Program and course outcomes · Professional competencies · Authentic learning experiences · Evidence of learning · Assessment strategy
Residential Design I example
See the connections in one course.
Course purpose
Investigate residential needs and develop responses that consider users, place, function, and professional expectations.
Authentic challenge
Develop a compact-home proposal for a defined client, Texas location, and innovation focus.
Evidence
Programming, schematic alternatives, drawings, models, explanations, and revisions show how decisions develop.
Editable Word document · 3 pages
Course Blueprint template
Complete the seven planning elements using your existing course information. The response areas expand as you type in Word.
Editable Word document · 4 pages
Residential Design I worked example
Study a completed Blueprint and follow one outcome through professional practice, instruction, evidence, and assessment.
Build one useful alignment.
Choose an important course outcome. Identify an authentic learning experience, the support students need, the evidence they will produce, and the criteria you will use.
Carry forward: A course-level planning record that can guide the Project Cycle and weekly plans.
Continue to Project Cycle planning → · Back to the planning sequence
Connect activities around a challenge.
A Project Cycle brings investigation, design, making, feedback, reflection, and revision into a connected challenge. Its length and number of milestones depend on the course.
- Define the challenge. Identify the users or audience, purpose, relevant conditions, and outcomes.
- Set meaningful milestones. Identify the decisions, developing work, and support needed along the way.
- Allow time to respond. Place feedback where students can use it to test, revise, or explain a decision.
Residential Design I example
Develop a compact-home proposal.
Programming establishes client needs and design criteria. Schematic alternatives make possible responses available for comparison. Developing plans, elevations, and a massing study help examine decisions before the coordinated drawing milestone.
Demonstrations and critique support the work across the cycle. Reflection and revision can recur whenever a decision needs to be reconsidered.
Use your project brief and calendar.
Record the challenge, relevant outcomes, milestones, support, feedback points, and evidence in your existing Project Cycle plan or connected course records. Then identify the next teaching interval.
Carry forward: A connected project sequence that supplies purpose and priorities for the weekly map.
Continue to the Weekly Experience Map → · Back to the planning sequence
Plan the next studio experience.
Use the weekly map for one week or another teaching interval within a Project Cycle. Connect what students prepare, what they do in the studio, and what they carry forward.
- Prepare. Identify the purpose, relevant outcome, prior feedback, references, and materials.
- Studio experience. Plan the investigation, activity, faculty support, and opportunity for feedback.
- Grow. Identify evidence of learning and the revision or preparation that comes next.
Seven planning fields
Purpose · Preparation · Studio activity · Faculty support · Feedback · Evidence of learning · Next step
Residential Design I example
Design development in practice.
Prepare
Revisit the client brief, design criteria, selected alternative, and critique priorities.
Studio experience
Develop plans and preliminary elevations. Use a massing study to examine a spatial or formal decision, with modeling and coaching available.
Grow
Use a desk critique to identify a coordination priority, revise the proposal, and explain the decision.
Editable Word document · 1 page
Weekly Experience Map template
Plan the purpose, preparation, activity, support, feedback, evidence, and next step for one teaching interval.
Editable Word document · 1 page
Residential Design I weekly example
See how one design-development interval connects drawings, a massing study, coaching, feedback, and revision.
Plan the next teaching interval.
Choose one Project Cycle milestone. Identify what students need to prepare, the decision they will work on, the support and feedback available, and what they will carry into the next experience.
Carry forward: A weekly map or existing course module that makes the connections clear.
From the guide to your course
Keep the plans connected.
Use the Faculty Studio Guide to examine a planning or teaching decision, study an example, and apply the reasoning to your course. Carry the decision through the Blueprint, Project Cycle, and weekly map wherever it affects the student experience.
Return to a useful starting point.
Use your approved outcomes and existing course materials. Update connected records when a decision changes, and keep detailed directions in the brief, rubric, or learning module where they will be used.