Am I in the right place? Students ask themselves as they walk into an old maintenance room with folding chairs. These chairs take the place of desks and make the room vaguely resemble a classroom. “This is Math and Construction, come on in,” responded Mr. Friederick. “This is our space and we’re going to build…it from the ground up.”
Math and Construction is a math and applied technology block class, offered only to seniors, that invites students to get hands-on experience with introductory construction concepts and corresponding math topics. An emerging class, the course has only been offered at Sandburg for only four years, and this year was the first that the class ran multiple sections with a total of three blocks. Formerly, the class was held in the woodworking room, but as interest grew, the class outgrew the space and needed a new learning environment.
“We were able to start with a blank slate and we had absolutely nothing in the room. We did everything in there from redoing the floors, to painting the walls, to building every table and storage bin and workstation, setting up all of the equipment, the dust collectors, [and even] redoing the power. For a lot of kids, I think being able to see where we started on day one to where we were at Christmas break was a very good experience for them to be a part of,” says Mr. Diorio, Sandburg’s woodworking teacher who takes on the construction component of the course. He adds that “it was a very valuable experience for everybody in the class,” and he thinks that “it was an experience that a lot of students in that class might never have in their entire life.”
The course focuses on teaching students math skills and lessons that can be applied immediately to construction and real life situations. Although the days vary, Mr. Friederick, both a certified math and applied technology teacher, shares that most days, students are learning something for the first half of the block, and then applying it to a building project the second half. The construction of the classroom was a larger project, but in the same way, it allowed students to learn a wide variety of skills and immerse themselves into the world of construction. “It’s a dirty job, and they were excited for it,” says Mr. Freiderick.
Mr. Diorio finds that the “most valuable thing that students gain from the class is gaining confidence in learning how to use machines, equipment, and tools to construct and build something along with understanding how important problem solving skills are to learning out and figuring out a variety of different situations in your house and in the trades. Everybody is going to own a house one day, everybody is going to have things that break in their house. We teach kids how to work through those situations and how to do some research and ask some educated questions to the contractor [they’re] hiring or the person at Home Depot.”
Riley Kelly, senior, says, “It’s taught me a lot. It’s definitely a class worth taking. It counts as a math credit, and you learn applicable math and [other] skills you’ll actually use.” Kelly values the real-world learning at the heart of the course. “You’re never going to lose those skills, and you’ll use them for the rest of your life.”
Kelly had a unique experience with math and construction that other students did not. In previous years, the class ran during a lunch hour, and Riley would join the class for some time as it only consisted of eight or nine students. This allowed him to gain even more experience and pursue his passion with the trades early on. Kelly found his interest in construction in middle school. He shares that he came to the realization that “not everybody has to go to college” and that entering a career in the trades is “just a different path to go down. [It’s] not necessarily bad, not necessarily good, it’s just if you’re better at that, just do that.”
“Anybody who goes to college and gets a job is paying people to fix things or build things as well, so there’s a focus that needs to be on that route as well,” explains Mr. Friedrick.
“The genesis of this is the amount of people entering the trades–there’s a massive need for workers, and it is now kind of bleeding into the high schools where you don’t have to go to college and have $20,000 of student loans, you can go into the trades where they pay you to do the training, and then you’re in the pipeline to get a job already. The trades are looking for people and a lot of kids in high school are choosing that route right away,” explains Mr. Friederick. He also notes that the “district [is] putting resources in for those who don’t want to go to college whereas before it was the main route.”
Math and Construction is arguably the largest of these emerging opportunities for students who decide to take less common postsecondary pathways. An especially beneficial part of the program is the exposure it provides students with to explore options. The class incorporates many field trips and guest speakers to inform students about a variety of trades and their specific educational opportunities.
Additionally, the class offers OSHA Training to students early in the school year. This is a safety readiness test that all trades workers must complete. “The big thing in the trades is safety first. Our kids are leaving the class OSHA certified, and they’re kind of getting a leg up on that,” says Mr. Friederck.
Through the success of the program, the whole school community as a whole has greatly benefitted. Each year, students have built sheds that are actively used around campus, but as interest grows, new possibilities emerge that bring promise of future growth to the program. Additionally, the impact has spread beyond the school district as other schools have visited seeking to replicate the program within their own districts.
The importance of options for students seeking nontraditional pathways has become clear in today’s evolving world. “This class gives that sort of person a realization and an understanding of where and how math is used in all of construction and everywhere we walk, look and see [in] every building or house we walk into,” says Mr. Diorio. The program’s growth speaks to increased opportunities to Sandburg students as well as a community focus on serving all students to prepare them for their futures.