Concept Map: Furniture Design Time Ripple

In this activity, students works as a class to create a time ripple concept map showing the connections between the designs of different furniture pieces over time, influenced by various factors such as geography, lifestyle, and economy.

Students begin by choosing a piece of furniture from a folder generated by the instructor. Students then research that piece of furniture and write a 1-2 paragraph summary that includes the information outlined in the Time_Ripple_Student_Instructions PDF. Students bring this information to class, and for low-tech classrooms, they also bring a colour image (2″ x 2″) of their chosen piece of furniture.

In class, students will work on either a white board (low-tech classroom) or on SMART Amp to create a concept map that includes all the pieces of furniture from the online folder. Students will place each piece of furniture onto the concept map depending on its time period, geography, etc. Students must discuss their reasoning for placing a piece of furniture at a given place/time on the concept map.
Once all the pieces of furniture have been placed on the map and discussed, students perform a short quiz to emphasize key concepts learned from the activity.

Throughout the rest of the semester, additional pieces (furniture and architectural) are added to the map. The map can be used as a study tool by students for the final exam.

Students will be able to:

• Identify connections between pieces of furniture based on their styles and or location on the time ripple map
• Identify patterns of styles and correctly predict where additional pieces of furniture might fit into the map
• Explain the influences of various factors (geography, economy, etc.) on design style