Activities
Timeline
| WEEK | MATH | CHEMISTRY | DELIVERABLES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Architectural drawings (basics) | Sustainable design, case studies | (Project intro) |
| 2 | Scaling factors and scale drawings | Photovoltaics and energy | |
| 3 | Scaling factors and scale drawings (continued), budgeting | Passive solar design and energy | First draft drawings due, student presentations on passive solar design |
| 4 | Area, surface area, volume, creating spreadsheets | Passive solar design and energy (continued) | Second draft drawings due |
| 5 | Area, surface area, volume, creating spreadsheets (continued) | Spreadsheet and 8.5x11 in scale drawings due; gallery walk of drawings | |
| 6 | Right triangles and trigonometry, roof design | Site plan due | |
| 7 | Right triangles and trigonometry, roof design | Draft pamphlet and model presentations | Floor plans due |
| 8 | Pamphlet and model presentations | Final pamphlet and models due |
(Author note: I piloted this project in the spring of 2005. The following description offers a detailed look at how the project evolved.)
Week One
The project begins by giving students the project sheet (Appendix I.1.1) and breaking students into their project groups (pairs whenever possible). During the first week, we focus on the basics of sustainable design and architectural drawings. Students learn about existing houses that use sustainable design by completing case studies of houses (template for case study, Appendix I.1.2) described in James Trulove, The Smart House and Arian Mostaedi, Sustainable Architecture, Low Tech Houses. They learn about site plans, floor plans, and exterior elevations by looking at real examples (available in Glenn Wiggins, A Manual of Construction Documentation) and drawing sketches of each type. We then complete sketches for the floor plan of the school, exterior elevations of nearby buildings, site plans of the school, and floor plans of students' homes.
Week Two
We begin to construct scale drawings in math class. Students learn more about energy consumption in homes and alternative energy forms. We study photovoltaics through a reading from Steven Strong, The Solar Electric House and a related worksheet (Appendix I.1.3). The teacher and students engage in reciprocal teaching (Palincsar and Brown, 1986), jointly summarizing and generating questions from the text in small groups during class time. This process allows the teacher to introduce and model literacy skills (e.g., previewing, scanning, summarizing, questioning, predicting) with students of varying reading abilities.
Week Three
Students begin to generate ideas for their designs, observing requirements specified in the Architectural Design Rubric (Appendix I.2.1). They are given a list of items they can purchase using their class "bank accounts" in order to begin their design sketches (Appendix I.1.5). They learn about balancing budgets, writing checks, and keeping bank records in two brief sessions (Appendix I.1.5). We study passive solar design with a reading from Daniel Chiras, The Solar House: Energy for Environmentally Responsive, Energy-Independent Home. Working in their teams, students become experts on one of the 14 principles of passive solar design and create presentations to give to the class. Each group then gives their presentation over a two-hour period and fills out a note sheet (Appendix I.1.4). This process is part of preparing their first official draft of their floor plans, due at the end of the week.
Week Four
We begin with peer critiques of the architectural drawings based on the Architectural Design Rubric. Each group critiques another group's drawings so the feedback could be incorporated into the next stage of design. In math we focus mostly on geometric calculations of area, surface area, and volume, so that students can transform their first drafts of floor plans and site plans into accurately scaled drawings. Students also begin to envision the exterior of their homes by drawing exterior elevations. The challenge here is to place windows in the design while observing the requirements of a passive solar home. This process requires many area and surface area calculations. During the week, we hold many student-teacher conferences to be sure that all designs are on the right track. By the end of the week, another set of drawings is due (minimum second draft of floor plans & site plans; first draft of scale exterior elevations with calculations of window glazing).
Week Five
We begin with a gallery critique of drawings where each group hangs up their most recent drafts and everyone walks around the room with sticky notes to give helpful and critical feedback. The design rubric is again used as the basis for the critique. The bulk of this week is spent on perfectly scaling all architectural drawings to a scale that fits an 8.5" x 11" sheet of graph paper. Students revise and complete calculations on Excel and draw and re-draw each design. The requirements for this big deadline are listed in the rubric "Area Calculations of Lot, House, and Interior" (Appendix I.2.2), distributed during the 3rd or 4th week of the project. Many student-teacher conferences are held to keep groups on track and help them reach highest quality work. By the end of the week, spreadsheets are submitted electronically, and scale drawings of site plan, floor plan, and exterior elevations are submitted on 8.5" x 11" graph paper.
Week Six
Groups who have completed all requirements began making their blueprint scaled site plans and floor plans using the Blueprint Rubric (Appendix I.2.3). This requires further use of Excel and the purchase of more materials from the class supply. In math, work begins on designing roofs and roof overhang using trigonometry and right triangles. For a great resource, see http://www.susdesign.com/sunposition/index.html. Students plug in the latitude of their site and find the smallest and greatest angle that the sun reaches during the year. Several mini-math lessons focus on trigonometry, special right triangles, and using these to calculate overhang. We also revisit the importance of overhang in passive solar design. Using this information, students eventually calculate the optimum length of overhang for their model's roof. The final blueprint of the site plan is due by the end of the week.
Week Seven
Students continue drawing floor plan blueprints and begin to construct models. Exterior elevations are drawn to the scale of the model in order to aid in the cutting of sides of the home. Every class is spent drawing, cutting, gluing, and building, with many conferences and critiques intertwined. An architect from a local firm visits each class this week to give hints and tips on building models. Also, students are given the rubric for their pamphlet (Appendix I.2.4) and the requirements for their presentation at the school-wide Exhibition (Appendix I.1.7). Floor plan blueprints are due by the end of the week.
Week Eight
The final week is full of excitement. Students place the finishing touches on their models, complete draft and final versions of their pamphlets, and present their work to the public. At the school-wide exhibition they display all blueprints, the architectural models, and pamphlets. On the day after exhibition, students engage in reflection activities and relish in their accomplishments.