Tom Williams’s Grade 6 math class recently assumed the roles of apprentice architects to design and build scale models of houses and estimate the final construction costs. The project was designed to apply mathematics to real-world problems: the houses were not allowed to have flat roof designs, each architect was given the same amount of property, and every house needed a front and back door.

Students’ interests and creativity guided their ideas for what the houses should look like. For example, Samantha Korn’s father works in real estate, and she had seen designs in his office that she liked, and Camille Vanasse wants to be a marine biologist, so her house includes a pool. All of the students enjoyed designing their homes, and Kiki Fitzgerald pointed out that designing a home is not something she will be able to do later in life. Charlie Moore-Gillon said it was fun because “I’m not really an artist, so it was something new and challenging.”

“When they learned to use a compass to build a better roof, or when they created scale drawings of their imagined house design, they saw that mathematics is a very powerful tool for creating and understanding new concepts,” Mr. Williams said.



© 2008 The Pingry School