This isn't the 2y-2=10 that you practiced over and over again in junior high.

        In addition to equations, Kings Junior High students learn math by figuring out how much paint is needed for the walls of a 14-foot by 10-foot room, how to build a sidewalk using geometric shapes and how to set up a household budget based on the average starting salary of, say, an attorney.

        The point of the program, launched this year, is to have students connect the mathematical formulas they use in class to activities outside the classroom.

        “Math lab has been here for years,” said teacher Richard McCarren. “But it was just rehashing what kids did in the classroom. It was boring for the kids and quite frankly, it was boring for me.”

        That's changed.

        Last week, Tim Bowman, 13, was designing a floor plan for a house. It must be to scale and the house can be no bigger than 2,500 square feet. It must have at least three bedrooms and 1.5 baths, and be functional and durable.

        Tim's plans, which he's doing on a computer, include a bathroom that adjoins a master bedroom and juts out into part of another room. The result? The smaller bedroom is shaped like an L.

        “That's how my mom's bedroom and my bedroom are,” Tim said.

        That's geometry and that's the connection educators want to make. The hope is to also excite students about math's possibilities. For Tim, it's working.

        “I don't hate (math), but it's not great,” he said. “But I like this because it's fun math.”

        @SubHed: Curriculum changes
       @text:

        The push to apply concepts to practices got a jump-start in 1989 when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued guidelines for math teachers.

        They were, said Lee V. Stiff, council president, partially a re

        sponse to American students scoring lower than foreign counterparts in math skills.

        “While we want children to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide, we also want them to be able to do something more,” Mr. Stiff said. “We want them to be able to understand the concepts.”

        Pressure also came from businesses hungry for workers who understand math and know how to use it.

        With technology exploding around the globe, the United States must find ways to teach students to think mathematically, said Linda Rosen, senior adviser in math and science to U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley.

        In September, Secretary Riley's 25-member National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, declared math and sci ence education had to be improved because:

        • Everyday decisions require it.

        • The American workplace demands it.

        • The global economy and our national security rely on it.

        The commission, chaired by former astronaut John Glenn, called on American teachers to abandon old-style math drills and embrace techniques including collaboration that are used by the Japanese. In Japan, students work in small groups on a mathematics problem to come up with a solution and then discuss the answers.

        “The (Japanese) students learn through reasoned discovery, not lecture alone,” the report states.

        Students here “are crippled by content limited to the "What?' They get only a little bit about the "How?' ... and not nearly enough about the "Why?' Missing almost entirely is "Why should I care?'”

        @SubHed: Taking a leap

        @text: Kings, along with other schools throughout the Tristate, are trying to incorporate the “Why should I care” into teaching with projects like home building.

        To improve scores on the Ohio Proficiency Test at Kings, where fourth and sixth grade math scores led to school ratings below "effective,” teachers have to be sure kids can do more than just regurgitate formulas, Mr. McCarren said.

        “This kind of project makes them think in steps,” Mr. McCarren said. It teaches them to solve mathematical problems by applying them to their lives, he said.

        Math lab, for Kings' eighth-graders, is in addition to standard math class.

        This semester, lab students are designing a brick path for the school courtyard, figuring everything from the number of bricks to cost and volume of sand.

        They are also putting math skills to use to figure out a family budget.

        Dubbed “This Could Be My Life,” the hands-on project has a student choose a career and research its starting salary.

        A roll of the dice determines if the student is married.

        Another roll determines the number of kids.

        Then comes the challenge of figuring car payments, tax deductions, housing costs, utilities, insurance, child care, groceries and more — all based on research.

        For the students, the choice of projects over workbooks is easy.

        "I think it's pretty cool,” said John Allare, 13, as he explained the details of his house.

        John said he is learning skills he can use in a number of jobs. His designs, which must meet real housing and construction guidelines, include a deck, a patio and a two-car garage.

        There is also a stunning six-sided living room.

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