If the Geometry in Construction curriculum had existed years ago, Jeff Schaefer would never have quit teaching. Now, he’s back in the classroom — sort of. Every other day, Schaefer trades a textbook for a hammer and dry-erase markers for nails. “I’m a big do-it-yourselfer, so this was right up my alley,” said Schaefer, a math teacher at Hendrickson High School in Pflugerville, Texas.
Hendrickson High School is one of more than 500 schools in the United States that currently offers a curriculum called Geometry in Construction, designed by the company Contextual Learning Concepts. Students learn math by building a tiny home with tools and materials. The first year the school funds the project, and after that, the program is self-sustained by selling the homes.
In a typical classroom, students might be given a page of shapes and be asked to calculate the area of each shape. But in Geometry in Construction, math is applied to a real project in a real-life setting. For example, students might be given a blueprint with compound shapes, where they have to calculate the total square footage of carpet. Classes incorporate a variety of fields — electrical, carpeting, design, plumbing, siding, roofing. The construction of the house drives the order in which they learn each field.
“Kids get really hungry for being able to answer that age-old question in math of ‘When am I ever going to need to know how to use this?’” Burke said. Geometry in Construction provides an answer. Geometry in Construction was first offered in 2006 by Scott Burke, an industrial technology teacher, and Tom Moore, a math teacher, at Loveland High School in Loveland, Colorado. A cohort of 80 students built a 640-square-foot home, which now sits in the mountains outside of Woodland Park, Colorado. Since then, the curriculum has gained momentum. Currently, there isn’t a comprehensive study that shows whether the students have higher test scores compared to their peers in a regular class. But a small internal study within a few Colorado high schools showed these students had higher than average math scores.
Schaefer said he’s seeing similar results at Hendrickson High School. In the typical classroom setting, he sees about 50 percent homework completion. “It’s like pulling teeth,” he said. But the way Geometry in Construction is taught, homework isn’t really optional. If students don’t turn in homework, they don’t get to work on the house. Homework completion, he estimates, has risen to 85 percent.
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