Work by yourself to answer the following questions. Record your answers in your technology notebook.
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Think about the model house your team designed in the Explore activity. What were some benefits and costs for the design decisions your team made?
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When your team designed the model house, it had a limited number of tokens to spend on materials. In what ways is this similar to what happens when people build real houses?
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In the Explore activity, your team constructed a model house from paper. Car designers often make models with clay when they design a new car. Architects build models of buildings that they are designing. Why would models help designers and architects in their work? What are the costs and benefits of those models?
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Provide an example of how you have thought about benefits and costs (risks) when making some decision in your life.
Answers to Reflect and Connect
Allow students time to answer these questions. Once they have had time to complete their responses, you may want to hold a class discussion on some or all of them.
Think about the model house your team designed in the Explore activity. What were some benefits and costs for the decisions your team made for its design?
When your team designed the model house, you had a limited number of tokens to spend on materials. In what ways is this similar to what happens when people build real houses?
In the Explore activity, your team constructed a model house from paper. Car designers often make models using clay when they design a new car. Architects build models of buildings that they are designing. Why would models help designers and architects in their work? What are the costs and benefits of those models?
Provide an example of how you have thought about benefits and costs when making some decision in your life.
In the simplest terms, the costs of decisions were measured by tokens. Some materials were more expensive to buy than others were. Some costs may not be that obvious. Not being able to buy some materials because the team already spent tokens on something else could be considered a cost. The guidelines that teams had to follow could also potentially be considered a cost. By requiring students to follow certain design guidelines, teams may not have been able to try other options. Materials that helped their houses survive the wind test could be considered benefits.
People have to make choices about where they spend their money. This is true for buying everyday things like clothes or food as well as for large things such as houses. Even if people don’t recognize it, they are usually thinking about the benefits they will gain from certain decisions as well as the costs.
The models that car designers and architects use in their work enable them to see their designs in three dimensions before they spend large amounts of money to build the full-size car or building. After looking at the models, the designers may make changes that affect either the function or the appearance of the car or building. Although there are many benefits of models, there are also risks or costs. Obviously, the designer cannot take a clay model of a car for a test drive or get inside to see how sitting in it feels. Likewise, an architect would not be able to test all aspects of a large building’s structure using a small model. The key is to learn how to use models appropriately.
Students’ responses will vary depending on individual experiences. On a very simple level, students could say that they have thought about benefits and costs in deciding what to wear on a given day. Wearing a sweater to school would be a benefit if the temperature is not expected to be very warm. A possible cost would be losing the sweater after taking it off when the classroom is too hot.