TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Seventh-graders at a Tucson school were in full-scale business mode this week.

Working from a mock invoice submitted by the math teacher at Doolen Middle School, students in the career and technical education class were building eight Canoga boards.

Nothing fancy, the wooden boards are essentially an old gambling game in which players throw dice to see how many rolls it would take to eliminate numbers one through nine.

It wasn't "Guitar Hero," but it was fun in its own way, said 12-year-old Christopher Ley, adding he was learning skills that will help him follow his father into the construction industry.

But beyond that, when the students deliver the completed work order to Becky Graseck next week, she'll then use the games to teach probability, one of the eighth-grade math standards.

Career teacher Terry Conners, exhibiting a certain "Home Improvement" vibe with his tool apron and a tape measure attached to his belt, walked among students as they cut, glued, drilled and sanded.

The grunt work done, students were rewarded with the part they liked best - using a magnifying glass to channel hot little beams of sun onto wood blocks to sear numbers into them.

Retail value of the boards ranges from $10 to $60. The school probably wouldn't have been able to purchase them outright, Conners said, because it didn't have any extra money for materials. Tucson Cabinets donated the materials, worth a few hundred dollars, and he took in his own tools.

Hakyong Ko, 13, said she took the class to be exposed to different careers. She may never again find the need to apply solar etching, she said, but meeting deadlines, working as a team and filling orders are all skills worth developing.

"It's not how it's actually going to be in the real world, of course, but it's good practice," she said.

Seventh-grader Azalea Grant said the project was helping her overcome a weakness.

"I often have trouble working with other people, but it's going OK so far," she said, adding she also likes the discipline of deadlines because it's good practice for science fairs and other contests.

Such cross-curricular collaboration is part of the changing educational paradigm, said Steve Courter, president of the Tucson Education Association, TUSD's teachers' union.

"Education has changed a lot in the last several years," he said. "You don't have teachers just retreat between the walls of the classroom anymore, and then you don't see them again until the end of the day."

Instead, the idea is to work jointly to link content areas so that students make connections.

Conners also has incorporated literacy exercises, including having students work up jingles and write advertisements for their product.

Even if the world doesn't need more jingles, it can always use more cooperation, so the team has been asked to share its efforts with colleagues at an upcoming professional development session.

---

Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.