This is Why I Teach...

Before Christmas break, we had been working with area of rectangles. The curriculum we use for Math had a Unit project suggestion of having the kids design aquariums that fit a certain number of fish/materials/etc. to apply the skills they were learning. I know my 6th graders very well...and knew this was a good project, rich in content and skill application. But, I also knew it would mean one thing to them - we would have to get an aquarium in the room. Knowing how busy I am, and what it take to care for an aquarium, I quickly posed the idea that THEY brainstorm a structure to design that did NOT involve Mrs. Baxter buying animals;) The following is only a glimpse of the result...

First, they came up with the idea that we needed to design something for our middle school that (of course) would benefit them. A couple days later, our lesson focus was on constant area and perimeter and the book's example was storm shelter designs. It wasn't long before a couple of students pointed out that we don't have a tornado shelter for our school. A few months prior, students in a nearby state were killed when a tornado ripped through their town-largely because the school had no shelter...and just like that, a great idea was born.

I had to plan a math project that technically didn't exist and I had to do it quickly! Here's what we ended up doing:
1)Viewed news clips of the Moore, OK tornado  (this really hit home for them, as the victims were their same age)
2)Researched our district policies and looked for info on which schools in our district do/don't have shelters and why
3)Researched how to get funding (I explained that if we had the money laying around-we'd have a shelter already)
4) Plan their designs: calculate how much room 1 student would need in a safety position...and do the math to calculate what the area of the shelter needed to be to hold all 800 students/staff at our school, choose dimensions based on the area they chose, walk the school grounds & pick a logical location, and finally-create the design on paper.

I required a floor plan with labeled dimensions (even the bathrooms they included-which required them measuring how much space a stall takes up:)), a report explaining everything in their design, and a letter to our principal explaining to main ideas - why our school needs a shelter and why their design is the best and should be chosen. The letter also had to explain where they thought we could get the money to build the shelter. The notes you see are from our Math Coach, Assistant Principal, and Principal.
When I saw the final products my only thought was, "This is why I teach."