Objectives

To relate family size to available living space

To appreciate the living space in our houses

 Subjects

Mathematics

Type

Cognitive (group activity)

Rationale:

We often take the amount of our living space for granted. So many of us have separate rooms for eating, watching T.V., or being by ourselves. Sometimes we have a bathroom larger than some people’s entire home. These visual graphs will display living space in proportion to family size.

Prerequisite:

Knowledge of graphing statistical information, i.e. bar graphs, line graphs, etc.

 Method:

The educator will give each participant five families from the book and ask them to design a graph showing the number of family members versus the number of rooms in the house.

If the exact figures are not mentioned specifically in the text or fact sheets, then the participant can study the photographs and make an educated guess.

The graphs will be collected and grouped by region (North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean) and put up for display. How do these statistics compare to those for families in your neighborhood?

Materials:

Families on this website

Graphs for display

Art supplies for graphs

Follow-up:

Using the regional graphs, the participants can discuss the similarities and differences between regions and suggest reasons why housing problems exist.