Restaurant Design

Practicing area, perimeter and map skills can get quite tiresome with the traditional drill and practice on paper. One thing that I have challenged myself to do more in math this year is to really focus on applying math to real world situations. When doing so, I believe it makes the experience in my classroom much more valuable.

The original idea for this project came from a project that I saw posted by "Room 205" on Proteacher.net. There were bits and pieces of the original project that I used, but I did modify it to fit the needs of my students.

Students were presented with a hook, to get them excited about the project. I probably could have just stated they were going to design a restaurant and they would have been just as happy.

Directions were given to students and then to make the experience more valuable, we dug through the internet for vacant buildings in our local city. We selected a building with dimensions that we agreed upon and away the students went with the first phase of their project. I say "phase" because rather than making this one large project due on a certain date, it is much easier for my students to chunk the project and turn in for mini deadlines. This way they just have to piece it together in the final.

Here is a breakdown of the individual phases:
Phase 1 - survey the community and collect data on restaurant theme ideas, graph and analyze
Phase 2 - measure out a floor plan based on the dimensions, work with the art teacher to design a digital logo to go with the name of your restaurant
Phase 3 -  Make your floor plan digital and add in dimensions of various rooms
Phase 4 - Adding in table and furniture measurements
Phase 5 - Use Room Planner "Free" on the iPad to build the restaurant into a 3D model. Students can decorate the inside.
Phase 6 - students complete final presentations and design a menu that fits their theme

Each phase lasted approximately 1 week, as it was also built into the other activities that were taking place with our weekly iTunes U math rotations.

Overall, the students had a great time with this project and immediately asked if we could do another one identical to it. I love seeing my students excited to learn! Next year, I would love to move the level up this project up by connecting with professionals in the area to seek advice in designing or possibly even visit a vacant site.