Geometry Towns

As a way to assess what students have learned about geometry so far, students were asked to create a plan for a town using specific shaped buildings and specific layouts for roads.  They had a checklist to follow to create this town that included buildings, a park, and a shopping plaza.

First, we looked at the town of Hesston via Google Earth.  We discussed its roads, how it is laid out, and how buildings had different shapes to them.  Hesston is the perfect example of a town that has parallel roads, perpendicular roads, and roads that intersect but aren't perpendicular.

The students spent one day creating a plan for their town.  It took a lot of thinking, a lot of space, and a lot of materials!

Kat makes sure she is including everything from her checklist!

Emily creates a triangle with a right angle for her town park.

Kaleb double-checks his notes to make sure he is including the correct polygons.

Shaylee has added her parallel and perpendicular roads.

Hannah creates more geometrical buildings for her town.

Jace and Landon work on cutting out or drawing their towns.

We took a break for recess. 

The next day, they got materials to make a larger plan to recreate their plan on butcher paper.

Maria and Emily begin the process of creating their towns.

Brayden chose to draw out his roads instead of cutting them from paper.

Kaylee is gluing down her perpendicular road.  

Hannah begins adding her buildings to her town.  The buildings had to follow certain guidelines- like having a certain amount of acute angles or parallel lines.

The students all mentioned that this was a fun project but hard--it made them think differently than they ever had before!  They had to take what they had learned and apply it to a real-life situation.