ELSIE, Michigan - Quaint cottage or stately mansion? Suburban ranch house or urban loft? When teenagers almost old enough to move out on their own imagine their dream houses, anything seems possible.

Bonnie Ott, a computer and business teacher at Ovid-Elsie High School, introduces a healthy dose of reality to a class project called "Build Your Dream House."

Designing, building and paying for a house challenges students

Students start by searching the Internet to find two sets of floor plans they like. Then they conduct research to find out how much local builders and contractors would charge per square foot to turn the plans into actual structures. In the real world, where this project is firmly rooted, housing prices also reflect the cost of land, wells, septic systems, and plenty of other expenses, which students must calculate.

How will they ever pay for these dream houses? Students learn how to use mortgage calculators on the Web to determine what the monthly payments would be over fifteen, twenty, or thirty sets of calculations, reflecting three different interest rates that are available at the time from lenders.

"Once all is calculated—including the total payoff of the homes," Ott explains, "students put the entire project into a spreadsheet with relevant and professional graphs and pictures." Finally, they present the results to their classmates.

Students like the project, Ott says, "because they are able to use technology to create something they can use in the future." That fits her goal of giving students real-life tasks.

Ovid-Elsie High School is located in the center of Michigan—what Ott calls "the middle of the mitten," referring to the state's distinctive shape. The school of 600 students serves the neighboring small communities of Ovid and Elsie. Ott teaches in her own computer lab, with twenty workstations. The school has two additional labs, plus an adjoining information center with "state-of-the-art technology," she says, including equipment for video production, radio and television broadcasting.

Students are often surprised by the end of the house project to discover what it would cost to turn their dreams into realities. "Many students choose their 'dream house' and are quite surprised when they figure costs and a final monthly payment," Ott says. "Sometimes they remark that they'll have to get a really good job—or else marry someone who has one!"

For a more detailed look at the lesson plans and resources for "Dream Home" see the unit plan, http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/SeeingReason/ProjectExamples/UnitPlans/DreamHome/