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Mrs. L. Marque's math students applied their trigonometry lessons to toward the real world problem in the HHS auditorium. There was no ramp available to provide immediate stage access in the cafeteria. There is only a wheel chair lift. That meant that one year a handicapped key-note speaker had to wait back stage for hours before taking the stage himself. That same year, two 400 pound Promethean boards needed to be carried up the stairs in a manner that offered considerably greater health and financial risk than using a ramp would.
Students took measurements and used known variables to write proposals as groups for which ramp to build. They presented their proposals to the innovation department using a teacher's rubric, and a winning design was chosen for the class to build. Click here to view the original project plan.
The three young ladies who wrote the winning proposal were put in charge of the project, but they had never worked with power tools before, let alone built a structural object. By the time they finished, they were all confident with a miter saw, jig saw, sander, speed square, power drill, impact driver and polyurethane.
As they moved from design to completion, they made a variety of adjustments. In the end, their goal to produce a removeable ramp directly onto the cafeteria stage capable of holding over 800 pounds at once was a success:
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