Design a House

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/project1/designAhouse.html

Unit Authors

This unit was developed by a company called STM and adapted by Becky Breedlove and family I. It is being delivered to 6th graders at O'Farrell Community School for the first time this year.

Content Areas

This unit is anchored in mathematics and involves language arts and science to a much lesser extent.

Organizing Theme

The concept that this unit is based upon is the students designing their own dream house.

Implementation

The "design a house" unit is a multidisciplinary unit that is designed to take five to six weeks. It will be taught one period per day primarily in math class. Family I used some of the material last year, however this is the first time they will implement it in it's complete form.

Outline of Activities

Week 1
MathematicsScienceLanguage Arts
Designing a floor plan
Placing the house on a site
Building the walls
 Climate analysis
Environmental concerns
 Dream house description

Week 2
MathematicsScienceLanguage Arts
Wall cost: area of rectangles
Designing nets for roof models
Net analysis
 Insulation effectiveness

Week 3
MathematicsScienceLanguage Arts
The mystery of the pyramid
Raising the roof
Roof cost: area of triangles

Week 4
MathematicsScienceLanguage Arts
Area scavenger hunt
Floor and ceiling cost: area of any polygon
Estimating labor costs

Week 5 <
MathematicsScienceLanguage Arts
Comparing the costs of the model homes
Designing a home within a budget
Project seminar: touring the models

 Model Home Brochure

Student Products

The most tangible student products that will be produced will be the scale model homes. There are also preliminary home models that the students construct on a much more limited scale, with some restrictions on area and cost. All of the interim work leads the students towards the final Dream home model production in a buliding block approach.

Thinking Skills Engaged

There are many concepts that are introduced and developed within this unit. All of the major projects focus on creative problem solving. The mathematical themes encoutered within this unit are scale and proportion, plane and solid geometric representations, and area measurement. There are many mathematical strands that are interwoven into this unit as well, such as statistical analysis, algebraic formulas verified by direct measurement, and adjusting geometric shapes to meet numerical constraints.

Lessons Learned

Since this is the first year this unit is being taught in family I, and it is currently under instruction, the lessons to be learned have not yet been learned. More to follow on this.

This description was written by Phil Norman. Last updated on March 6, 1996.
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