Author Archives: thetechn

Sustainable House Original Draft 2013

 

Math Application

Sustainable House Design Challenge

 

Introduction

Your task is to design a house that uses resources in a sustainable way. You will need to consider these aspects:

  • Material use
  • Water use
  • Climate control

 

Materials supplied: cardboard boxes of different sizes, cardboard tubing from paper towels and bathroom tissue.

Tools supplied: measuring, straight edge, tape, calculator, scissors, glue, tape and staples.

 

 

Sustainable Goals to Achieve:

Sustainable energy is not just about using renewable energy, perhaps its not even about renewable energy, its about using energy wisely and introducing energy efficiency measures.

 

Sustainable use of materials: Maximizing the use of the materials and reusing them for other purposes. Minimizing the storage area to allow for more living space without compromising the needed space to store.

 

Water collection and storage: Designing the home to enable collection and storage of rainwater by keeping in mind the following key points:

  1. Relationship between rainfall and water collection
  2. Rate of usage vs. rate of collection
  3. Determination of required storage capacity

 

Climate control: Maximizing the natural availability of solar light and heat by keeping in mind the following key points:

Solar energy

  1. Solar path determination
  2. Relationship between solar performance and orientation angle
  3. Relationship between solar performance and inclination angle
  4. Optimization of solar performance
  5. Solar energy storage

Thermal properties

  1. Heat transfer to air cavity
  2. Control
  3. Insulation material
  4. Roofing colors
  5. Roofing insulation
  6. Effects of ventilation on air cavity temperature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draft of Original Lesson Plans

Schedule Activity Applied Math Resources
Day 1 

 

 

 

 

  Sustainable use of material

  1. Introduction and scope of activity.
  2. The Construction
  3. Orientation

 

  1. Measuring
  2. Maximizing living space
  3. Minimizing storage space

 

 Estimation and approximation-Lighting and protection from the elementsSurface area, perimeter1-step and 2-step equations

Inequalities and quadratic equations
  • Online content video
  • Online sketches

 

 

 

  • Online area and perimeter calculator
  • Online equation solver
  • Online graphing applet
Day 2 

 

 
  1. Roof design

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Roof construction
 Equation of the lineThe slope of a line equationThe y-intercept of a line equation 

Measuring and straight edge use
  • Online rain collection calculator
  • Online rain collection video
  • Online logistics video
  • Online graphing applet

 
Day 3 Water collection and storage:

  1. Roof water collection design
  2. Rate of usage and collection

 

 

 

  1. Roof water collection construction

 

 Circles – circumference and areaCylinders – surface area and volumeChange of rate introduction 

Measuring and straight edge use
  • Online area and perimeter calculator
  • Online equation solver
  • Online graphing applet
Day 4 Climate control:

  1. The living area: better area approximation

 

  1. The living area: air cavity

 

 

 

 

 Using rectangle areas with width delta and height related to the roof: Riemann SumVolume of a solid by plane slicing
  • Online Riemann Sum calculator

 

  • Online video

 

  • Online calculator
Day 5 Climate control:

  1. Heat transfer to air cavity
  2. Roofing color
  3. Roofing insulation

 

 Delta and differentiation conceptsFinding the area under the line by using integration
  • Online video
  • Online calculator

 

 

 

 

Lessons

 

Schedule Activity Applied Math Resources
Day 1 

 

 

 

 

  Sustainable use of material

  1. Introduction and scope of activity.
  2. The Construction
  3. Orientation

 

  1. Measuring
  2. Maximizing living space
  3. Minimizing storage space

 

 Estimation and approximation-Lighting and protection from the elements

 

Surface area, perimeter

 

1-step and 2-step equations

 

Inequalities and quadratic equations
  • Online content video and sketches:

The house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VZLLXH04uQ

 

 

  • Area calculator

http://www.csgnetwork.com/surfareacalc.html

 

  • Perimeter calculator

http://www.calculatoredge.com/enggcalc/perimeter.htm

 

  • Online equation solver

http://www.numberempire.com/equationsolver.php

 

  • Online graphing applet

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 7.35.47 PM

 
Day 2 

 

 
  1. Roof design

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Roof construction
 Equation of the lineThe slope of a line equationThe y-intercept of a line equation 

Measuring and straight edge use
  • Online rain collection calculator

 

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 7.30.33 PM

 

 

  • Online rain collection video

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Rainwater-Collection-System

 

 

  • Online logistics video
  • Online graphing applet

 
Day 3 Water collection and storage:

  1. Roof water collection design
  2. Rate of usage and collection

 

 

 

  1. Roof water collection construction

 

 Circles – circumference and areaCylinders – surface area and volumeChange of rate introduction 

Measuring and straight edge use
  • Online area and perimeter calculator
  • Online equation solver
  • Online graphing applet
Day 4 Climate control:

  1. The living area: better area approximation

 

  1. The living area: air cavity

 

 

 

 

 Using rectangle areas with width delta and height related to the roof: Riemann SumVolume of a solid by plane slicing
  • Online Riemann Sum calculator

 

  • Online video

 

  • Online calculator
Day 5 Climate control:

  1. Heat transfer to air cavity
  2. Roofing color
  3. Roofing insulation

 

 Delta and differentiation conceptsFinding the area under the line by using integration
  • Online video
  • Online calculator