Tiny Home Design Curriculum

6-8th Grade Visual Arts | 10-15 Hours

Unit Summary: Students will explore Nashville’s growing need for affordable housing and tiny homes as a way to address the issue. In groups modeled after career roles, they will design and build a 3D model of a tiny home to help add more affordable housing to their school’s neighborhood.

Universal Concept/Big Idea

Affordable Housing

Enduring Understanding

The equitable distribution of limited resources supports the overall health, well-being and resilience of people and places.

Driving Question

How can I use design to provide housing for people in need?

Field Trips

  • For “Day 2: Tiny Home Field Trip (Enrichment),” plan a field trip to visit tiny homes in Nashville. Reach out to the Civic Design Center if you would like recommendations for tiny home locations. 

  • For “Day 3: Tiny Home Location (Enrichment),” plan either a walking, bus, or virtual tour through your school’s neighborhood.

Guests

  • For “Day 8: Architect Guest Panelist (Enrichment),” schedule an architect to come and talk to your students about their career. 

  • For “Day 9: Critique (Enrichment),” schedule a guest to give your students feedback on their design projects.

Unit Preparation

Materials 

  • Card stock with scissors and tape will be needed for form models or another modeling material such as clay.

  • 11x17 grid paper with ¼” squares will be needed for floor plan layouts.

  • Decide what materials you want your students to use to build their scale model. Consider asking students to bring recycled materials from home, such as cereal boxes, shoe boxes, or cardboard.

Unit Overview

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Content + Standards

TN State Standards

  • 6.VA.Cr1.A Combine concepts collaboratively to generate innovative ideas for creating art.

    6.VA.Cr1.B Investigate personally relevant content for creating art.

    6.VA.Cr2.A Experiment with new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making works of art and design,

    using course specific craftsmanship.

    6.VA.Cr2.C Design or redesign objects, places, or systems that meet the identified needs of diverse users.

    6.VA.Cr3.A Reflect on and revise personal artwork to convey intended meaning.

    6.VA.P2.A Individually or collaboratively, develop a plan to display works of art that includes

    analyzing the exhibit space, while considering the audience.

    6.VA.P3.A Explain how an exhibition in a traditional or emerging presentation space reflects the history and values of a community.

    6.VA.R3.A Develop and apply relevant criteria to evaluate a work of art.

  • 7.VA.Cr1.A Apply formal and informal methods to overcome creative blocks.

    7.VA.Cr2.A Persist in developing skills with various materials, methods, and approaches in creating works of art or design using course specific craftsmanship.

    7.VA.Cr2.C Apply visual organizational strategies to design and produce a work of art, design, or media that clearly communicates information or ideas.

    7.VA.Cr3.A Reflect on and explain important information about personal artwork in an artist statement or another format.

    7.VA.P2.A Based on criteria, analyze and evaluate methods for preparing and presenting art.

    7.VA.P3.A Compare and contrast perceptions of exhibitions in traditional and emerging presentation spaces.

    7.VA.R1.A Analyze multiple ways that images influence specific audiences.

    7.VA.R1.B Explain how presentation methods and environments influence how art is perceived and valued.

    7.VA.R2.A Interpret art to identify ideas and mood conveyed by analyzing art-making approaches, relevant context, subject matter, and use of media while using appropriate art vocabulary.

    7.VA.R3.A Compare and contrast evaluation of art based on personal preference versus established criteria.

    7.VA.Cn2.A Analyze how responses to art are influenced by understanding the time and place in which it was created, the available resources, and cultural uses.

  • 8.VA.Cr1.A Document early stages of the creative process using traditional or emerging media.

    8.VA.Cr1.B Collaboratively investigate an aspect of contemporary life utilizing art and design.

    8.VA.Cr2.A Experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge when making art, using course specific craftsmanship.

    8.VA.Cr2.C Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations.

    8.VA.Cr3.A Apply relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a work of art or design in progress.

    8.VA.P2.A Collaboratively prepare and present selected theme-based artwork for display, and formulate exhibition narratives for the viewer.

    8.VA.P3.A Analyze why and how an exhibition or collection may influence ideas, beliefs, and experiences.

    8.VA.R1.B Explain how aesthetic choices are influenced by visual and material cultures and can impact perceived meaning of artworks.

    8.VA.R2.A Interpret art by analyzing how mood and meaning are impacted by the relationship of subject matter, use of media, art-making approaches, and relevant context while using appropriate art vocabulary.

    8.VA.R3.A Construct a persuasive and logical argument to support an evaluation of art.

    8.VA.Cn2.A Distinguish different ways art is used to represent, establish, reinforce, and reflect group identity.

Interdisciplinary Connections

  • Use a scale to draw a floor plan and build a 3D model.

    7.G.A.1 – Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale

  • Write daily reflections and an Artist Statement.

    6.W.TP.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

    7.W.TP.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

    8.W.TP.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

  • Choose a location in the neighborhood for a tiny home village.

    SSP.06 Develop a geographic awareness by using the geographic perspective to determine relationships, patterns, and diffusion across space at multiple scales, analyzing locations, conditions, and connections of places and use maps to investigate spatial relationships, analyzing interaction between humans and the physical environment and examining how geographic regions and perceptions of regions are fluid across time and space.

  • This project asks students to design a solution to a real problem facing Nashville’s neighborhoods - a lack of affordable housing.

  • Students will learn about the careers of architects and project managers. Group roles will be modeled after these careers.

Skills

Learning and Innovation Skills (4Cs)

  • Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts.

  • Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.

    Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member.

  • Create new and worthwhile ideas.

    Develop, implement, and communicate new ideas to others effectively.

    Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas.

  • Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems.

    Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, argument, claims, and beliefs.

    Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes.

    Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways.

SEL Core Competencies / “I Can” Statements

  • Self-Awareness

    1B.2 Identifies interaction between personal qualities and interests with academic activities and social opportunities

    1B.3 Utilizes interest to gain additional experiences toward mastery of a skill or concept

    1C.1 Identifies personal strengths and limitations as they relate to specific activities

    1C.2 Applies self-reflection techniques to recognize potential, strengths, and growth areas

    1D.2 Plans and develops an action plan to set and achieve short- and long-term goals

    Self-Management

    2A.1 Maintains balance during stress, emotional responses, or changing emotions

    2B.4 Establishes criteria for evaluating personal and academic success

    Social Awareness

    3A.2 Recognizes multiple points of view or perspectives in a situation

    3A.4 Predicts the impact of one’s own behavior on the emotions of others

    3B.2 Shares reasons for helping others

    3B.3 Identifies roles they have that contribute to their school, home, and community

    3B.4 Works collaboratively with peers to complete a job, task, or address a need

    Relationship Skills

    4A.1 Practices reflective listening

    4A.2 Demonstrates ability to perform different roles in a cooperative group to achieve group goals

    Responsible Decision-Making

    5A.4 Explains how honesty, respect, and compassion (empathy) enables one to take the needs of others into account

    5B.1 Identifies and applies the steps of systematic decision-making

    5B.3 Defines how external influences impact decision-making

Language Acquisition

Academic Vocabulary + Language

Affordable housing, tiny home, form, floor plan, scale, model

Language supports/scaffolds for comprehension of content standards

Visual representations of vocabulary words will be provided.

Copyright Information

Copyright Disclaimer

The Design Your Neighborhood curriculum is copyrighted and there are constraints to its use.

Please Do: copy this resource for your personal classroom use only, and post this for students on a password protected class website.

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