The sun’s blazing down. The heat is unrelenting. You get a brief reprieve as you plunge your hands into the cool soil. It’s all about being in the fresh air and working with your hands. You’re an artist. It just so happens that your canvas is a community park that desperately needs your creativity. The sweat on your brow, the sting of the sunburn can’t distract your focus from imagining and physically transforming your ideas into a masterpiece. As a landscape design intern, these are the days you cherish.

Imagine - for a moment - the satisfaction your students will feel as they create their own designs and shape the earth into their vision - their masterpiece.

Why Teach Landscape Design
The Green Industry, as a whole, is one of the hottest career opportunities today. It is a perfect blend of technology and nature, offering people the chance to work with their hands and minds in the out-of-doors. Landscape Design allows the educator to teach students about horticulture while giving students hands-on projects in design and problem solving. Since landscape is over a 60 billion dollar per year segment of the Green Industry, students get the chance to explore and apply new knowledge in a dynamic and growing field.

Some Key Concepts and Outcomes

• Apply the problem solving process to real world problems
• Explain how the Green Industry helps create a healthier environment
• Understand and demonstrate the best choices for plants depending on soils, sun, and zone
• Explain the basic elements of a good design
• Prepare an informational or persuasive oral presentation
• Understand and demonstrate how to design in a 3D CAD system

Curriculum Length
The curriculum has been designed for flexibility; the length of this curriculum is controlled by the educator. Level One has two separate projects and can run from 20 to 45 hours. Level Two has five projects and can be used as a full semester course.

How We Teach
To make the curriculum easy to implement, all the necessary knowledge and skills are delivered through totally interactive software. Through text, pictures, animations, and digital video, students are led through the exciting world of landscape design. This means that we also teach scale drawing and CAD skills through our clear and concise video tutorials. Due to the highly interactive and self-directed nature of our curriculum, each student is allowed to find their own pace. Regardless of the learner’s motivation or learning style, students will find a new level of success with our innovative and engaging approach.

This curriculum was designed to support state assessments by addressing national math, language, science, and technology standards.

Skills for Life
Good life skills are made relevant through situations that have students examine their actions. Through interactions with their boss, co-workers, and customers, students learn what it takes to be successful in the real world. They discover the long-term benefits of making the choice to take pride in what they do.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Employers want people who solve problems. Our projects lead students through analyzing, brainstorming, and creating solutions using the design process.

Single-Seat and Site Licensing available

Computer Requirements:
Windows® 98SE or higher, Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, 128 MB of RAM, 2 GB of hard disk space, CD-ROM, sound card, 32 MB video card memory, headphones, minimum 1024x768 screen resolution