Porsche Chun

Artifact 2 Dream House Project

Standard #5: Application of Content. The teacher understands how to connect
concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity,
and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
For Standard #5, Application of Content I chose to use a teacher made worksheet
for a Dream House Project. This specific project ties into mathematics. The concepts
that the students are working on are applying area and perimeter in a real world
application. I used this project during my second solo observation during student
teaching. In mathematics students were learning about area and perimeter. Their
common core state standard said that they had to apply it to a real world application.
Therefore, I decided to have students create a home floor plan of their dream house.
I started off my lesson introducing students to area and perimeter of a square and
rectangle. Then, I allowed them to problem solve with a right triangle and a rhombus cut
out of construction paper to see if they could find out how to solve for the area and
perimeter. Students were able to come up with formulas to solve for a right triangle and a
rhombus as a class. Lastly, I introduced the Dream House Project to the students. They
were very excited to make their own floor plan.
All my students did very well on their floor plans and were able to easily find the
area and perimeter with the graph paper. You could see each students personal creativity
and their thinking. Some students included rooms that they were interested in such as a
game room, a spa, a pet room, and even a pool. On the other hand there were students
who thought more practically and had multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a
living room.

I believe that I met Standard #5, Application of Content with my Dream House
Project because I was able to take a real world situation that students may encounter one
day and tie it in with their mathematics lesson on area and perimeter. As a class we
discussed what types of careers would require them to create floor plans and they came
up with engineers, construction workers, and architects. Students were also able to be
creative with designing their dream house. All students were able to make the type of
rooms that they would like in their homes. They were also able to place the rooms in any
place that they would like. Students had full control over their design of their dream
house, except for the shapes of the rooms that they were required to have. Lastly,
students had to think critically to convert each centimeter cube on their graph paper to
two square feet and then solve for area and perimeter of each.