Using Math to Craft Tiny Houses

We start this project by watching a video about what tiny houses are and how some cities are building them to help people that are financially vulnerable. Considerations include the cost and aesthetics of homes, and how people can pay for a home. We also address how homes can be sustainable and environmentally friendly. Students then start their design process by sketching ideas for their tiny homes.

With time in the ChangeMaker Lab, students create and build tiny houses from their original designs. We work at a specific architectural scale, so students learn and practice how to convert real-life dimensions into dimensions for their model. Sustainable features are incorporated into every design.

This project incorporates many of the important math concepts from seventh grade. We are concurrently working on our last unit, volume and surface area, so students calculate the volume and surface area of both their models and the actual-size houses that they represent.  We work with converting units and scale factor. Students draw their tiny houses as three-dimensional shapes to calculate the volume and then as nets (unfolded three-dimensional shapes) to calculate the surface area. Students also include curves and angles in their designs so that they can use their knowledge of the Pythagorean Theorem and curved geometry, such as cylinders, cones, and spheres.

This project shows students how many of the seventh grade math concepts are used in the real world and it gives them hands-on experience creating, measuring, calculating, and designing.