How: Introduce students to concepts of scale (or shrinking) and bird's
eye view or plan. I used a video clip from the film ‘Honey I shrunk the
kids’ and a shoe box for demonstration.
In groups of 3 have the students measure the room using their bodies
(pacing the room and measuring the length of an assigned student’s
normal walking pace; using visual clues such as a repetitive floor tile or
a measuring tape for more advanced learning. Using a graph paper
show students how to represent one foot of actual measured distance
on paper (for example, one foot equals one square on the graph
paper). Ask each student to practice this by drawing a bird's eye view
or plan of the classroom including basic furniture (tables and chairs),
doors and windows.
Part 2: Think Like an Architect
Objectives: Students will learn concepts of plan, scale and other
mapping skills as they create a floor plan of the room they are in.
16