The ConVal Summer Boost Program offers a special course in applied mathematics, Geometry in Construction.
In this co-taught class, students become proficient in both the geometry and construction trades competencies through hands-on activities. Examples include creating a set of stairs to teach rise and run, constructing balsa wood houses to learn about the importance of correctly following blueprints, ratios, and cost/waste analysis, and constructing a full-sized clubhouse or shed.
Students create formal geometric constructions with a variety of tools and methods, such as compass and straightedge, string, etc. Other skills that the class teaches include: copying a segment; copying an angle; bisecting a segment; bisecting an angle; constructing perpendicular lines, including the perpendicular bisector of a line segment; and constructing a line parallel to a given line through a point not on the line.