Tiny House Project
This page supports a whole class project where the end result will be a decorated & furnished model house with working lights in each room. Project can accommodate up to thirty students per house. Expect to spend at least 3-5 days on project with a period of between 30 minutes to 1 hour for each day.
Materials List
Materials (Required)
Tape (options: masking, duct, scotch)
Chibi Lights
Copper tape
Round watch battery
Paper (options: construction, poster, card stock, index cards, cardboard)
Ruler
Scissors
Materials (Optional) These are suggested items but are not required. The more 'building' materials available the better.
Popsicle Sticks
Wrapping paper
Paper clips
Markers/Water Paint/Crayons
Double sided tape
Glue Stick or Glue Dots
The Floor Plans
This simplified floor plan can be used in place of the one shown above, or use a plan of your own design. Each group is responsible for one room. Your teacher will tell you which house plan to use and the scale to use. Wall height is 8 feet for this plan.
Click here for a conversion table aligned with this floor plan. Round decimals to the nearest tenth.
Example: 12.75 becomes 12.8
Team Job Descriptions
Divide class into building teams. Each team will have 'specialists' who will be in charge of a specific job. Jobs include: Foreman, Builder, Electrician, Interior Design, Staging. There should be six teams, one for each room in the house. If some teams have fewer than 5 members, it is fine for members to have more than one job. For example, if a team had 4 members instead of 5 combine the interior design and staging expert jobs.
Use the Planning Document shown below to guide the building process and keep track of progress.
Use the embedded Tiny House Presentation to define jobs roles, daily schedule suggestions, and provide assessment criteria.
Planning Document
Tiny House Presentation
Building Supply Price List
In the real world, contractors must work within a budget. Materials cost money and mistakes when measuring materials can be very costly. Make sure you plan with your team carefully so that you are not wasting your allowed budget. Each team has $50 to purchase supplies from the list below. Teams may also bring items from home to use if they wish. Some items are required and are indicated below.
Note to teacher: Materials may be purchased using whatever method you prefer. Play money, record book/ledger, checkbook, or pretend credit card are all ways to simulate real world purchasing.
Learning Center
Using Copper Electrical Tape
This video shows how to work with copper tape. The type of tape provided for your project is only conductive on one side. As you watch the video, be thinking about which parts apply to your project.
Creating a Simple Circuit with Chibi Lights
As you watch the video on the left, remember what your project goals are. The video provides good directions for creating a simple circuit but you will have to apply what you learn from the video to a new problem.
Make a paper battery holder written directions.
Don't forget the circuit will need to be open most of the time to preserve the battery life.
This video shows how to round a number to the nearest tenths place. Be sure you round all of your measurements to the nearest tenths place for this project.
Tip for CMCSS Students:
Let each team member enter their own username followed by @students.cmcss.net to share the document. Remember to select Can edit from the pencil icon choices and to include your teacher. Look in your shared folder to see the document after it has been shared.
Click link for more Google Help
Daily Reflection
In the movie Avatar, Jake Sully is required to keep a video journal of his experiences as the avatar. This is a clip from the movie where Jake is reflecting in his video log of how his work is going.
You and your teammates will also keep a video journal using a program called Seesaw. Your teacher will give you details about how to access you class video log.
An important part of the learning process is reflection (thinking about how it went). Seesaw is a program that allows for student reflection and interaction in a safe environment that the teacher moderates. Use the slide presentation to teach your students about Seesaw and how to be good digital citizens. Then create a class in Seesaw for your students to use to reflect at the end of each day of the project.
Assessment Criteria
In the real world, each person working on the house would be assessed based on the job they were required to do. Jobs that are done to the buyers satisfaction often result in additional work/income from a referral. A poorly done job can result in loss of future work and sometimes could mean being fired. The rubric below should be used to help assess how you are doing along the way.
