Math 7

You are designing a new house to move into. Design a basic floor-plan for your house, and draw a picture of what it will look like. The house that you design must meet the budget that you have been given.

90 minutes

2

Areas and Budgets

Math 7 Standard:

Measure length, area, volume, and angles to appropriate levels of precision.

Information Literacy Standard:

            Access information efficiently and effectively

·         Recognizes that accurate and comprehensive information is the basis for intelligent decision making.

·         Identifies a variety of potential sources of information.

Evaluates information critically and competently

·         Selects information appropriate to the problem or the question at hand.

Uses information accurately and creatively.

·         Organizes information for practical application.

Information skills and sub skills:

            Exploration

·         Locates and accesses information resource

·         Explores range of information

Collection

·         Selects most appropriate information sources

·         Identifies and extracts relevant information from selected resources.

·         Stores information for potential future use.

Organization

·         Summarizes/synthesizes/classifies final information

Presentation

·         Presents result

Evaluation

·         Determines future usefulness/application

Objectives: Students will be able to:

·         Design a house, working within a strict budget.

·         Draw their impressions of the house.

·         Focus on aspects of logical and mathematical intelligence

·         Focus on aspects of visual and spatial intelligence.

Material Needed:

·         Class set of computers with internet access (computer lab)

·         Paper based resources: floor plan design books, magazines, etc.

·         House plan design sheet

·         Grid paper

Introduction

·         Instruct each student to find a partner, and that they are going to design some houses.

·         Allow enough time for the students to investigate floor plans on the internet. Provide a few safe websites where they can find examples of house floor plans to get them thinking.

·         Allow students to peruse the paper based resources to get a few ideas.

Step 1

Hand out the House Plan Design Sheet (see below). Ask the students to work out what they want the basic shape of their house to be. Tell them that their house can be up to 2,000 square feet. Ask the students to work out the proportions of their house (perimeter and lengths of outside walls).

Step 2

Ask the students to brainstorm what kind/style of house they are going to design. Ask the students to look at their lists and think about what is realistic.

Step 3

Ask the students to make a rough copy of their plan. Ask the students to work out the areas of each room. Ask the students to add up the areas of all of the rooms to see if the house is less than 2,000 square feet. Ask the students to change the size of the rooms if their house is too big. Ask one of the students to draw their impressions of the house as the other person is designing it.

Conclusion

Ask the students to make a good copy of their plan. Ask the students to draw their impression of the house and be prepared to share with the class.

House Plan Design Sheet Information

You may work in pairs on this activity. Design a basic floor-plan for your house, and draw a picture of what it will look like. The house that you design must meet the budget that you have been given.

You are designing a new house to move into. You already own a level 7,200ft^2 block of land (60 ft x 120). You have a budget of $115,000 to build the house and other extras with. At the moment it costs $85 for 1ft^2 of a house. The largest house you are allowed to build is 2000ft^2. If you choose to design a smaller house, you will have more money left over for other things such as pools, and patios (see list below). If you want to add something not listed here you may ask Mr. Sanchez if you may add it, and how much it costs. Note: You are only allowed to build a one level house.

• Above ground pool (9ft x 12ft x 3.5ft): $3 000
• In ground pool (surface area 240ft^2): $10 000
• Patios: $110 to build 50ft^2
• 6ft timber fencing: $8 per ft
• Turf (grass): $5,000 for the whole yard (regardless of area)

There are a few rules for designing your house though. It is easier to work out the area of a room if it is a square or rectangular shape. You should also keep the sizes of the rooms in your house realistic.

Here is a guide to the measurements and area (size) of rooms in a house:

Type of Room	Measurements	Area
Single Garage:	9ft x 17ft	153ft^2
Bedrooms:	10ft x 10ft to 12ft x 15ft	100 to 180ft^2
Living rooms:	10ft x 15ft to 15ft x 18ft	150ft^2 to 270ft^2
Bathrooms	9ftx 6ft to 9ft x 9ft	54ft^2 to 81ft^2

House Designing Checklist

1. Effort
2. Attitude
3. How well you work with your partner (co-operation)
4. Being on budget
5. How realistic your house is
6. Is your design to scale (1cm on design = 1ft in real life)?
7. Is the picture you have drawn a realistic representation of your design?
8. Is your work presented neatly?