In northwest Indiana you will find the town of Syracuse, home to Geometry in Construction Hoosier style. Wawasee High School is a 9 - 12 comprehensive school with approximately 960 students. Teachers, Jamie McAdams (construction) and Kem Zolman (math) launched 2 sections of Geometry in Construction this past fall. What follows is a question/answer session.
What is your authentic project? We are building a 12 X 36 one bedroom camping cabin on a trailer frame. We are going for the cabin look with an all wood interior, metal roof, laminate floor, lighting fixtures that use antlers, etc. We drew up the plans ourselves. What is unique is that we are having spray-in foam insulation, making the cabin more energy efficient. The cabinets are being built by Tyler, an independent study senior at our high school. He will be attending school next year in Vermont for cabinet and furniture making.
What do you plan to do with the cabin? The cabin has been pre-sold to a local campground. They are using the cabins as summer rentals and for living quarters for campground management. We charge 15% over the cost of the materials. The cost is estimated between $19,000 - $20,000. The campground owner wants one a year for the next 5 years.
Tell a little bit about your classes? We have a morning section and an afternoon section. Each class has about 18 students. Most of them are sophmores, however we do have a few freshman. About 20% are girls.
Tell about the benefits to you? It is nice to work with another adult and not be alone. Seeing the connections between Geometry and Construction is enjoyable. There is less grading for me as a construction teacher but I spend my time doing other things like ordering materials, etc.
What schedule are you on? We are on a trimester schedule which was the first adaptation that needed to be made. Most schools have the kids all year, we only have them the first and third 12 weeks. Last year we did not have a full Geometry in Construction class, but we built our first cabin. This year, it is so much easier now that we have a regular Geometry in Construction class.
What has been the toughest? Keeping everyone and everything organized. In addition, learning the other teacher’s subject matter.
What is the goal of the course? We wanted to give students a taste of construction. Hopefully some will continue into our Building Trades Program with Ed Waltz. Ed has been extremely helpful in getting us to the place we are at.
What do the students think? The kids enjoy getting out to build and seeing the geometry and construction ties. The estimate is that the students’ geometry grades are about 5% higher than the traditional classes on the final test at the end of the first trimester which is encouraging.
What else would you like to tell people? “It is a great program and the week long training is the best workshop that I have ever attended”.
Jamie welcomes you to visit Wawasee High School. You can call 574.457.9153 or email at jmcadams@wawasee.k12.in.us
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