The goal of this part of the unit is for students to understand how people who build structures for a living construct things in a way that are solid and will last. Students examine how buildings are framed and put together following building diagrams. They come up with a bid on lumber and keep a budget throughout the build process to see how close their bids were. Following their builds, they also assess their peers using a Decision Matrix.

The second part of the unit is the Architecture unit. Students use basic architecture/drafting tools to learn how architects draw floor plans using a board, t-square, and triangle/straight-edge. After learning to draw floor plans of houses, students bring their floor plans to life using Planner5D (CAD) software.