Abstract

The article provides an account of the author’s experiment asking first-year students at a STEM university to represent academic essay structure as three-dimensional models built out of unconventional materials, such as cardboard, foam, felt, and glue. The author documents her students’ process of working with their hands in a workshop environment to translate academic writing into artifacts neither academic nor written. Through visual and verbal examples of student work, the author shows how students use the activity to analyze how abstract concepts such as structure, form, and design translate across materials and modes. The experiment suggests that activities asking students to theorize, apply, and transfer concepts across media and learning styles offers a way to connect writing to design-related initiatives across the curriculum.