All around us we can see evidence of the way that mathematics affects everything we do in our lives. The basic principles and relationships between mathematics and architectural design are a must, in order to understand how mathematics is applied throughout the design and the construction process steps.
In this unit, the architectural mathematical concepts are integrated into daily life applications by helping students observe the environment around them in terms of becoming critical observers, by paying attention to details that can then be quantified, tabulated, measured, graphed, and analyzed, and by allowing students to see the various relationships between the design and application of mathematical concepts of measurement, arithmetic, and geometry in the completion of a structure.
Therefore, students begin to understand that there are direct and indirect impacts of architectural form and design in our lives, which often cannot be understood or clearly observed without having first looked at how design and implementation are connected. This unit's concepts are presented in such a way that it takes into account the environmental and physical factors with the goal of walking students through a discovery journey of their community and building structures.
It is by providing students with many opportunities to come into contact with their environment; helping them make connections between mathematics and architecture in their lives; and becoming critical viewers of the community where they live, that the goals of this unit are accomplished.
As Jim Cummins states, it is not only teaching the children to read the words that is important. More so, it is to help children to read the world and go beyond. It is my hope that through the participation in the activities of this unit, students become active critical viewers of the many elements that make up their communities, and are able to transmit that way of "seeing" to those around them.
