7B Room Design Project

The seventh grade curriculum lends itself to many real-world projects and activities. It is the last concrete and tangible mathematics the students encounter before being thrust into the abstract world of algebra. 

An end-of-the-year project I like to do with the 7s is a room design project. Students measure their bedroom, draw a scale drawing, calculate the surface area of the walls and floor, calculate the amount of paint needed, calculate the amount of flooring needed, calculate the cost of paint and flooring and sales tax, all on a budget. We tackle this project as a series of phases to be completed with many small deadlines to keep them on track. Students get into drawing their blueprints with architectural symbols, picking out paint chip colors, deciding on the finish of the paint, and negotiating how to spend their budget.  It is a practical and real world application of many of the concepts and skills learned in the seventh grade curriculum.

Last year, I had a student independently tape all of his drawing together into a net of his room.  It was brilliant! So this year, I added it to the project and the students liked seeing how their 2D net could be transformed into a 3D representation of their bedroom. I felt like I could imagine standing in their rooms from their scale models. I learned a few things from the construction process that I would change for the future, but it was a great addition to the project. The science teacher and I discussed the possibility of having the students 3D print their rooms next year. I love the idea of cross-curricular integration.  We just need to make the time to plan and execute it next year!

Snapshot: 6C Sugar Packet Posters

As part of our study of proportions, 6C did an activity by Dan Meyer called Sugar Packets. They watched this video and had to figure out how many packets of sugar are in a bottle of Coca Cola. 

We extended this activity to other beverages. They predicted which beverages had the most sugar and the least amount of sugar. They recognized that the sugar content could not be compared if the volumes of the beverages were different, so they made unit rates of sugar to volume so they could compare like amounts. Many students were surprised by the sugar content of some of their favorite beverages.

The last phase of this activity had the class take a point of view and promote one beverage based on its sugar content over other possible beverages. The students had the freedom to pick which point of view they wanted to promote, but they had to use the math to support their claims. 

These are a sampling of some of the more creative and unique posters that were created. I was impressed with the class' use of humor and puns to catch people's attention. There were a few new ideas that made us think. I have never had anyone compare the sugar content of different milks. The comparison of different waters was a new spin on this project. 

I really like this activity because it forces students to think about how proportions can be used to compare different items. I like adding the dimension of having a point of view and supporting it with numbers. It helps to dispell the idea that numbers to not lie and that data can not be manipulated if it is numerical. It provides an opportunity for students to look critically at how numbers and data are used to express a point of view and how they can be used to manipulate how you see something. This project is an opportunity to practice clear communication and sharing of ideas. 

Snapshot: 7B Playing Card Proportions Project

 In seventh grade, the students applied their knowledge of ratios, proportions, and scale to a project where they had to produce a scaled version of a regular playing card. The purpose of the project was to have the students apply their understanding of proportions to a real task and for students to develop an appreciation for the feature on tablets and phones where they can just pinch to enlarge and/or shrink a map or image. These are seemingly simple features that require a great deal of mathematics to make functional and accurate. 

I like this project because there are many ways for students to customize their experiences and provide differentiation. They could add difficulty in the value of the card, the suit, the scale factor, and whether or not they did the whole or just part of the card. Artistic ability is not required to succeed on this assignment, but it is an opportunity for those who have an interest in artistic expression to share their interest. It brings a little color and fun to the walls of the classroom!

6C: Ratio and Froot Loops

Sixth grade is moving into an exciting part of the year where we move from computation to more conceptual work. We are reviewing the concept of ratios with a hands-on activity with a box of Froot Loops. 

Students were asked to estimate the total number of Froot Loops in the 12.2 oz box of Froot Loops. The box was divided up amongst the students and they had to catalog and count each color. The students made adjustments to their estimates for the full box and made estimates for the total number of each color in the box.  We briefly discussed this as a way to do sampling to estimate the total box of Froot Loops. 

I took this opportunity to show the class the power of spreadsheets.  We used Google Sheets to collect our class data. Then we used formulas for sum to find totals of each color and for each student. We applied our knowledge of fractions and percents to turn the totals into percents. They also saw the power of the spreadsheet to generate a bar graph of our data.  The class was curious to compare their data to previous years data sets and made interesting observations. Students reflected upon their experience and saw how using ratios was helpful in refining their estimating.  They were happy because they enjoyed ingesting their data set after we were done!

Snapshot: 7A Playing Card Proportions

The seventh grade is in the midst of reviewing their understanding of ratios and proportions. They worked with unit rates, did unit conversions in customary and metric units, solved proportions, found percent of change, and applied percents to mark ups and discounts. As we transition into our geometry unit, the class was asked to apply their skills with proportions to make a scale drawing of a playing card. 

Detailed calculations done to scale the playing card.

I like this project because it give the students a sense of how much mathematics is embedded in apps and tools that allow them to proportionally scale images on their devices: click and dragging the corner of an image; pinching or expanding an image on a touch screen; or when a mapping application zooms in or zooms out.


The project allowed for student choice and differentiation. There was a large range of difficulty depending on the card they choose (easy = ace, medium = number cards with increasing difficulty as numbers approached 10, difficult = face card) or the scale factor (easy = 2x, medium = 3.5x, difficult = 1.75x). The project required careful measurement and an understanding of proportional change. 

The students did an outstanding job on the assignment. The scale factor range was 0.5x to 8x. Please stop by the first floor of the sixth street building to check them out in person.