Housing


 * __Online Projects for Designing and Floor Plans__**











Want to show your students how much energy it takes to run their video games or recharge their phone? GE has a visual tool that will show what an appliance costs in terms of watts, gallons of gas, and dollars plus options of per year, month or day and you can choose the state so you can compare Missouri to other areas. @http://www.ge.com/visualization/appliances_energyuse/index.html

Resources gained from request on mo listserve- here are the things that were sent to me after asking for semi-independent projects for my housing class I give internet worksheets with a particular website and then they must work independently. I don’t lecture- it does not work for me. I will discuss a few items – I really just look over the summary of each chapter and discuss it with them and then give the assignment. There is also a website where the student can design their own room – change color, etc. and they can also do window treatment stuff here too. I believe the name of that website is bhg.com or something to do with better homes and garden.

Some things I have done that have worked in the past. Paint a Color wheel, find examples of rooms (from magazines) with color schemes like monochromatic, analogous etc. Powerpoint on wall finishes then let them try some on pieces of cardboard. Make furniture out of playdough, study styles of furniture and try to replicate them with playdough, this can be quite funny, I usually even let them make the playdough I have also taken my class on a walking field trip to our community center and courthouse. While at STAR events I wrote questions to a Disney movie “Jungle to Jungle” with Tim Allen comparing primitive housing to modern NY style housing. They enjoyed that. It introduces several careers also. Stock trader, fashion designer, fashion writer, doctor, etc Today I have my housing students building igloos from sugar cubes. We use chinet plates to build them on, lots of elmers glue and of course sugar cubes. I require a doorway with a wind block and a window for light and circulation. It can have a chimney or vent in the top. Alaskans heat their igloos with whale oil and they cook in them so steam and smoke need to escape. The ice is a very insulative and also blocks all the sunlight so they are very dark inside. This is part of our primitive housing styles unit. Sometimes I do tee-pees with fireplace matches that I’ve lit and blown out    J         Felt squares and beads. This class doesn’t like hand sewing so they were better suited for igloos. Have fun with this! We used, xtimeline.com   Get some play doh. As you are talking about housing styles, have them design one style. It takes longer, but might keep them more focused.        You can borrow “50 Web Based Lesson Plans For Fashion, Design, and Housing” from the MCCE loan library. They are all worksheets that the students use the computer to find the answers. www.uen.org  has tons of ready made lesson plans that are basically all individual projects.           <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> My students, when I taught this class, liked going online and finding their dream home in houseplans.com. Then they would shop to furnish one room. The boys would do the family room to pick a neat entertainment center. etc. Garage, or even backyard area. They had to incorporate the design elements. I also liked this site because they could print the floor plans. We would look at the cost and what kind of payments it would take, mortgage rates, insurance, etc. And compare to a more realistic home for most people. (put in a bit of personal finance).

I have also had them make a 3-D model of a house or room and decorate one room of it. Made from a box, with either a side view to see the design, or a top view to see the floor plan. Or draw floor plans.

We also took a field trip to see two different properties, priced about the same, but different in age and buildings, or acreage. And the realtor who went with us, talked to them about credit, and Realtor paperwork.

They could do "careers in the housing field" reports. or design a piece of furniture. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> I had my housing class paint my whole room. I had them divide up into groups of two and pretend that they were hired by the superintendent to paing the room. They had to come up with a color scheme and then they put a presentation together on a foam board and presented their ideas to the clas. The class voted on whose they liked the best. We then painted my room, cabinets, ceilings, walls and etc in those colors. My room looks great. They still come in and brag about the fact that they were the ones that designed and made my room the best looking room in the whole school. I think my room is the best looking room inthe whole school also. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> For color Harmonies I would have them find examples in a magazine, mix the colors for their color wheel, add black and white for tint or hue, I had them do a house at the end of the class in notebook form to have as a portfolio for design jobs or classes in college. Some have them build homes out of Popsicle sticks. Just a few thought. I was an Interior Designer before a teacher so I loved teaching that class. I had them weave the different weaves for the textile part out of strips of paper. Plain, And twill at least. There are some great fiber videos out there. A field trip to a home under construction is a great thing also. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">           Is there any chance to redo something at the school? Decorate a wall in the hall with a high end style idea. Go out in town and take pictures of examples of design techniques, color schemes, etc. Worth a try!