Introduction

What does your house or apartment look like? What did the builder use for the exterior walls? How much would it cost today to rebuild those walls?

You will research these ideas and answer these questions throughout your tour of this WebQuest.

The Task

You will research different materials used in exterior wall construction and determine the cost of several different materials for average sized two, three, and four bedroom homes.

You will present your findings to your class in an oral and visual format.

At the conclusion of this research and presentation, you will have an understanding of the materials used for exterior walls on residential buildings and their costs. You will also have developed some personal preference, in regards to exterior walls, for your dream home.

The final product will be a visual display and an oral report. The visual display may consist of a poster, a drawing, a 3D project, or a PowerPoint presentation.

     The Process
1. Begin your research of building materials for exterior walls.
Your exterior walls could be made of traditional materials such as aluminum siding, vinyl siding, wood siding, brick, or stone. Depending on your geographical location, you could use some less traditional exterior building materials such as stucco, rammed earth construction, caliche blocks, log homes, earth homes or new environmentally friendly building materials. Click on the linked words to find out more about each material.

2. Choose two of the above traditional exterior wall building materials. Research further. Be sure you find out:

availability of the product

availability of different colors of the product

what each material looks like

cost of each material per square foot

3. Choose two less traditional building materials. Research further.   Be sure you find out:

availability of the product

availability of different colors of the product

what each material looks like

cost of each material per square foot (if you can't find cost just indicate 'no cost available')

4. What do you think is the size of the average home?   Find out at these linked sites. Check out the sizes of 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, and 4 bedroom homes. On a piece of paper write down four different demensions (length and width) for each of the above sized homes. Find the average demensions for 2 bedroom homes, 3 bedroom homes, and 4 bedroom homes.
5. On 1/4" or smaller graph paper, draw the footprint (the shape of the home on the ground) for each size home. Let your scale be 1 square = 1 foot. Be sure each footprint is labeled with the number of bedrooms, the average length and width of the home found in step 5, and the scale.   You should have three footprint drawings.
6. Calculate the cost of the exterior wall building material. To do this follow these directions.

a. multiple the length x the width of your house

(expressed as ft²)

b. this is the total sqaure footageof your house

c. write the square footage figure on each house footprint

d. refer to the cost of your four building materials (step 2 & 3 of Process)

e. multiply the cost/ft² by the total square footage (the number in step b) for each type of building material. This is your total cost for the building material. Do this for each home and each building material. You will have 12 calculations to do (3 footprints x 4 building materials)

f. record your total cost for each type of material on each of your house footprints

7. Present your information to your class. Your presentation can be as creative as you want to make it but must include an oral report and a visual display. The visual display could be (but not limited to) a poster of your footprint drawings and building materials, a 3-demensional house, a slide show on PowerPoint, or a video presentation. Be creative! Be sure to include your personal preference(s) for your dream home!
                                             Go to top of Process

Evaluation
Your presentation will be evaluated using the following rubric. You will receive an individual grade for your presentation. Be sure to include all the ideas mentioned in steps 2, 3, 4, 6f & 7 in the Process.
                                              Go to step 2 of Process

Beginning
1
Developing
2
Accomplished
3
Exemplary
4
Score

Presentation
Oral report
Communicates few ideas of the project.

Communicates some ideas of the project. Communicates most ideas of the project. Clearly communicates all ideas of the project.

Presentation
Oral report

Uses no eye contact with the audience.

Uses little eye contact with the audience. Uses some eye contact with the audience. Uses eye contact with the audience.

Presentation
Oral report

Speech is difficult to understand. Speech is difficult to understand. Speaks clearly but has little inflection of voice. Speaks clearly and with inflection of voice.

Presentation
Visual display
Display shows little or no creativity with little color. It lacks the required information for the unit. Display shows little creativity with some color. It includes some information required for the unit. Display is creative with some color. It includes some of the information required for the unit. Display is creative and colorful. It includes all information required for the unit.

                                                  Go to Process

Conclusion
You have researched materials used in exterior wall construction and discovered the estimated cost of those materials. You have practiced calculating averages. You have learned terms such as footprint, scale, and square footage. Have you thought about your dream house? Has this helped you determine what you want your dream house to look like?

Credits & References
Mant sources have been used to create this WebQuest. Some of the pictures used were found in sites on the web. The animated pictures came from various clip art sites.

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Last updated on August 15, 1999. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page