How To Teach Scaling With Rulers To Inner City High School StudentsMany students currently enrolled in inner city High Schools do not possess a working knowledge of the common ruler. In teaching Architectural Drawing it is essential for the students to have a firm grasp of how to scale their drawings accurately.
To help teach the students give them a quick ruler test that has measurements of various lengths that they can fill in. Be sure to let the students know that you are doing this sort of as a doctor’s check up rather than a quiz. This puts the students at easy allowing them to work with a clear mind. Go around and give the students assistance as they ask for it.
After the quiz talk briefly bout scale, try and do this in about 10 minutes otherwise you will lose their attention. The best way to illustrate scale for all the students to understand is to you the fire exit floor plan on the wall near the door (where it usually is in place in all schools nationwide).
Tell the class that the school building is 100ft. long and you want to update the fire exit maps to accommodate the new construction to the building. Explain that 100 ft can be noted as 100 units and now you want to see what unit size is best to scale a drawing on an 8-1/2” x 11” Sheet of paper. Now go to the board and write ¼” for the unit size and ask the class if that will work. You will explain that it will not because there are 48 of these ¼” units to make a foot which is larger than the paper. You will then enter smaller units until you get a unit (fraction size) that will fit for the scale.
In closing I bring up the size of the solar system as an example for plugging in different scale sizes. I ask the class what scale would I use to put an image of the solar system in an encyclopedia page in the size of 8-1/2” x 11”. When using such vast numbers it helps the students visualize the point that you are making about scaling the drawings.
I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in Hyde Park Township, near the University of Chicago. As I child I was always drawing and painting. My father owned an art supply company, Favor Ruhl & Watson, where I was able to get all that I needed to progress in my work. I have always enjoyed portraiture and landscape painting. In High School (Naperville Central High School) I took Drafting from Mr. Pierce. I quickly grasped the principles of perspective and drafting and hence made a career with both Fine Art and Architectural Renderings. In the mid 1970's I joined the US Navy and was stationed on board the USS Midway, CV-41. The Midway was home ported in Yokosuka, Japan (A suburb of Tokyo). While in service I traveled all over Asia including such countries as Korea, China, Philippines, Singapore, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. While in Japan I learned Japanese. I speak German and Spanish as well. I am an omnivorous reader with a love of History and Philosophy. I admire the works of Immanuel Kant, Albert Schweitzer, and Fredrich Nietzsche. In music I admire the wo |