Recommended for: Grades K-8
Resource: Design: Building a House
Media Type:
Flash Image
Length:
Size: 374.2 KB
Have you ever wondered how a house is constructed and where its building materials come from? This collection of images depicts the multi-step process of building a house made from wood and another from bricks. It shows how raw materials are processed to make lumber and bricks and how these materials are assembled to create a finished product.
Teachers' Domain, Design: Building a House, published January 22, 2004, retrieved on ,
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.descwrld.house/
- Background Essay
- Questions for Discussion
- Standards
The materials used to build a house are many, and they vary depending on where in the world one lives. Climate conditions, available resources, and traditional design all influence construction decisions. As a result, dwellings made from packed snow (igloos) and from reeds and grasses (thatched huts) are not only common in some parts of the world but also appropriate.
Building materials themselves are often made of other components known as "raw"materials. Common building bricks, widely used for house exteriors in North America and Europe, are made from a mixture of clay, sand, and other natural minerals. Water is added to the mix, and the soft mass is then shaped to a specific size in a mold and baked in a kiln until the material hardens and assumes its characteristic rectangular block shape and red or brown color. By contrast, adobe bricks, made by mixing clay or mud with straw and used since ancient times in Egypt, the Middle East, Central America, and elsewhere, are traditionally sun-dried.
Wood also undergoes several steps from raw material to finished lumber before it is used to build a house. After trees are cut -- more and more from planned tree plantations in order to preserve older, more ecologically rich forests -- logs are sawed into pieces of lumber at a mill. The lumber must then be thoroughly dried. Removing moisture from the millions of cells of which wood is made makes wood harder, stronger, stiffer, and lighter in weight. Because strength is such an important factor in building structures, wood is inspected for certain defects. Knots, decay, and warping all reduce strength and durability. A builder chooses pieces of lumber that are the right dimensions for the part of the house under construction -- long planks and beams for the frame, flat boards for the roof, shingles for siding.
Building materials themselves are often made of other components known as "raw"materials. Common building bricks, widely used for house exteriors in North America and Europe, are made from a mixture of clay, sand, and other natural minerals. Water is added to the mix, and the soft mass is then shaped to a specific size in a mold and baked in a kiln until the material hardens and assumes its characteristic rectangular block shape and red or brown color. By contrast, adobe bricks, made by mixing clay or mud with straw and used since ancient times in Egypt, the Middle East, Central America, and elsewhere, are traditionally sun-dried.
Wood also undergoes several steps from raw material to finished lumber before it is used to build a house. After trees are cut -- more and more from planned tree plantations in order to preserve older, more ecologically rich forests -- logs are sawed into pieces of lumber at a mill. The lumber must then be thoroughly dried. Removing moisture from the millions of cells of which wood is made makes wood harder, stronger, stiffer, and lighter in weight. Because strength is such an important factor in building structures, wood is inspected for certain defects. Knots, decay, and warping all reduce strength and durability. A builder chooses pieces of lumber that are the right dimensions for the part of the house under construction -- long planks and beams for the frame, flat boards for the roof, shingles for siding.
We assign reference terms to each statement within a standards document and to each media resource, and correlations are based upon matches of these terms for a given grade band. If a particular standards document of interest to you is not displayed yet, it most likely has not yet been processed by ASN or by Teachers' Domain.
Loading Standards
Teachers' Domain is proud to be a Pathways portal to the National Science Digital Library.
Please answer this survey question:
Thank you!
Your response has been received. Thanks for helping improve Teachers' Domain!
Source: Produced for Teachers' Domain
Resource Produced by:
Collection Developed by:
Collection Funded by:
