Dream Big, Build Big

                     This week on Mon., Jan. 11, it was judgment day for the 7th grade advanced math classes Dream House Projects With the dream house project, students were supposed to design and build a scaled down version of their dream house.

Throughout the process they had to find the square footage of each room and the whole house. The house also had to be fully furnished and the furniture had to be on the same scale as the house. The dream house project was assigned before thanksgiving and it was due Mon., Jan. 11, 2010. At school, the students learned how to and created the spreadsheet to calculate the area of their house and the total cost of the project. In this project, they were allowed a $75 budget for their spending limits but most of the students spent substantially less than that. During the process they were allowed to have a partner or they could work alone.

Mr. Reetz started this project about 8 years ago and it has become a tradition for his advanced math classes every year and has been a success throughout the years. Mr. Reetz said, "This project has changed and evolved a lot since I invented it nearly seven or eight years ago." This project is one that helped the students by requiring them to apply the math concepts they have been taught in class in a real world, hands on experience.  During the project, they found square footage and they had to build their houses to scale. They also applied concepts such as measurement, proportional reasoning, and geometric  concepts such as angle measurements.  This project also helps students know that they are able to dream as big as they can and encourages them to try their best to make their dreams come true.

The winners of this year's project were 1^st place: Blake Bulman, 2^nd place: Holly Blair, and 3^rd place Emily Taylor.  Many other students worked very hard and created amazing projects which they can be very proud of.

By Tasheena Keller; 7^th and Julie Shattuck; 8^th

1st place winner Blake Bulman 2nd place winner Holly Blaire and 3rd place winner Emily Taylor
winners of the dream house project.
Photo by: Sunny Bill