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8th Grade  Project 5 weeks

Transformation Treasure Trek

jennifer B
Updated
TH:Cr1.8.b
VA:Pr5.1.8a
TH:Cr1.8.a
VA:Cr1.2.8a
6-8.AF.6.7
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The Challenge

You rely on clear visual directions, recognizable symbols, and safe public spaces to navigate communities, access local businesses, and use shared outdoor areas, yet many neighborhoods lack well-designed wayfinding, consistent visual branding across media, and inviting park layouts. These gaps reduce accessibility, limit small-business visibility, and weaken equitable access to active, place-based community life.

Challenge Question

How can we redesign an underused park area with shaded seating, activity zones, and paths so that families have a safer, more inviting place to gather and move?

Standards

  • 8.G.A.1: Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations. This includes mapping lines to lines (and line segments to line segments of the same length), angles to angles of the same measure, and parallel lines to parallel lines. 8.G.A.2: Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations. Students learn to describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them.8.G.A.3: Describe the effect of dilations, translations, rotations, and reflections on two-dimensional figures using coordinates.Supporting Standards 8.G.A.5: Use informal arguments to establish facts about the angle sum and exterior angle of triangles, the angles created when parallel lines are cut by a transversal, and the angle-angle criterion for similarity of triangles. Standards for Mathematical Practice MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Students justify their choices for sequences of transformations.MP.5: Use appropriate tools strategically. Students rely heavily on tracing paper, coordinate grids, and geometry software to test transformations. MP.6: Attend to precision. Students use clear mathematical vocabulary (e.g., center of rotation, line of reflection, alternate interior angles) to describe shapes and movements

Competencies

  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Learning Partners and Clients

A city planning or trails organization can provide maps, landmark information, and guidance on pedestrian-friendly routes for the treasure-hunt design. This partner can review student transformation sequences for clarity and safety, and use the finished route as a model for future neighborhood exploration events. Their feedback also helps students refine visual communication, wayfinding, and public-facing design choices for the final exhibition.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can step into the role of a junior landscape architect by exploring maps, logos, and community park photos, then identify how clear transformations and thoughtful design can solve real problems like wayfinding, brand consistency, and safer public spaces.
Examine
I can investigate local landmarks, pedestrian routes, and park features to identify what makes a space easy to navigate, welcoming, and safe for younger students and families. I can analyze sample logos on posters, social media posts, and packaging to determine how translations, reflections, and rotations keep a design recognizable at different sizes and formats. I can study coordinate grids, transformation rules, congruent figures, angle relationships, and triangle angle sums so I can explain how math supports real design decisions. I can gather feedback from classmates, families, or community partners and use their perspectives to identify criteria, constraints, and audience needs for my design work. I can examine copyright, fair use, and source attribution when using images, symbols, or design ideas so my work is original, ethical, and appropriate for public display.
Engineer
I can develop a transformation-based solution by planning and producing a treasure map, logo system, or community park blueprint with labeled coordinates, multiple rigid transformations, written design explanations, and features that respond to authentic client and community needs.
Do
I can put my solution into action by having users follow my treasure-hunt directions, review my transformed logo set, or respond to my park plan, then collect evidence on clarity, accuracy, accessibility, and appeal to measure how well it works in the real world.
Share
I can share my final design in a community showcase where visitors interact with my map, logo presentation, or park proposal, hear how I used feedback and revision to strengthen my work, and learn how I grew as a collaborator, problem solver, and designer.