Engineering and Education--Creating 21st Century Students—Part III—

Community Center Design

Dave BurghardtHofstra University

The Community Center Design Challenge

A town named Willingdon has just decided to create a community center dedicated to helping people in the town. The mayor of the community is searching for young, creative, and brilliant architects who can build a community center in Willingdon. Your challenge is to design an original model of a community center that can serve the needs of citizens using three-dimensional shapes. The mayor will need to see your plans, measurements, and a model in order to consider using your design. The community center must stand up on its own and should include the use of at least 3 different three-dimensional shapes. You must convince the mayor that the building will serve the community in positive ways to help people in need. You must complete the challenge within six class periods. You will be given a budget of 50 Willingdon dollars to complete this challenge.

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Specifications and Constraints

KSB 1 Formulating Ideas -Take Home Assignment

Alternative Designs

• Draw two sketches of possible buildings that you want to create. Write two reasons why each sketch fulfills the specifications

• Sketch 1 Sketch 2• Reason 2: Reason 2:

• Cost of Initial Design: _______________ (See Balance Sheet)

Additional Requirements

• The mayor of Willingdon has added some requirements for the model community center building that you’re creating. Not only must the structure stand up on its own and use at least 3 three-dimensional figures, the president has requested that the building must also have a volume between 150cm³ and 250cm³. The president also asked that the surface area of your model structure be between 170cm² and 350 cm². In addition, you may only use a glue stick to assemble your model community center building. You still have 5 class periods to complete the challenge. The ultimate net designs will be printed out on 8 1/2” x 11” white cardstock paper.

• Fill in the chart below with all of the specifications and constraints for this challenge. Write the original specifications and constraints in pencil and the new ones in colored pencil.

KSB 2- Surface AreaFind the area for each shape using the formulas given.

This feature includes Formula for surface of shapeDiagram and units for shapeStudent calculating surface areaWork area for calculationsStudent explaining features of shape

KSB 3Volume—Determining Volume of Extruded Figures and Non-Extruded Figures

This feature includes Formula for volume of shapeDiagram and units for shapeStudent calculating volumeWork area for calculationsStudent explaining net of the 3 D shape

Teacher Signature

At key points in the design process, there should be a teacher signature, so teachers check progress of student before he/she can continue.

KSB 4—Using ModelMaker

Students use ModelMaker to replicate shapes they calculated the properties of by hand. They will be using geometric shapes to complete their building design. Also, they will use the properties of MM, such as volume and surface area calculations as a check on their work.

Constructing the Design Solution

With teacher approval, students begin the process of fabricating their solution to the design challenge. Questions ask them to share their thoughts about why they selected the solution elements (shapes) they did.

Constructing the Design Solution

Students complete a table indicating volume of shapes chosen so they can re-tabulate the total volume and make sure the final design meets specifications.

Students complete a table indicating the surface of the shapes chosen so they can re-tabulate the total surface area (subtracting areas where surfaces meet) and make sure the final design meets specifications.

Final Design Solution

Students print the final design solution and print the screen image of it. Alternatively, or additionally, they may take a digital photo of the design and include that. The figure is annotated with area and volume information.

Reflection

There are questions that guide students to think and reflect on their design solution. The goal here is to have them examine the big ideas that underlie the activity and gain knowledge about the

Extension

This section seeks to have students apply their knowledge to a new situation (Bloom’s taxonomy re application).

Daily Learning Log

We have found that it helps students think about what they are doing each day if there is a time to reflect and record what happened. Over the course of the activity, students are quite surprised at all they have done, how much they have learned from when they started.