Four Frames of Environmental Theory

During the first week of classes, I had the pleasure of touring the historic and preserved North Campus at the University of Georgia.  The tour was a part of a class activity for the Environmental'''' course.  It was fascinating touring north campus through the lens of the authors Strange and Banning (2010) through the four frames of environmental design.  These four frames are physical, human aggregate, organized, and constructed.  Environments on college campuses are created within these four frames.  As we toured north campus, it became evident how the physical environment was constructed with buildings, fountains, gardens, etc.  Immediately upon seeing north campus, I always thought of "college" when I'm there.  The historic buildings, green space, etc gives the true collegiate feel when I'm visiting.  The human aggregate was best understood by the long traditions that have continued to be passed down.  For example, we saw countless students walking around the famous UGA Arch.  The organized environment that I took notice of was which departments were in which building and even which departments were housed on North Campus in relation to other parts of campus.  The constructed environment was also discussed as some classmates talked about how they feel when they are on campus or even when game day comes and the campus is conveniently packed with 100,000+ people moving around the campus and the city of Athens.

This will be an interesting class and I'm looking forward to the continued conversations around how college environments affect student learning and development.