Students do the hands-on work, supervised by teachers. A professional architect handles that job. That would be a bit much, even for academically inclined 9th graders. “The lot is empty at the beginning of the school year,” says math chair Leibforth. Students have been building one house per academic year behind the high school, starting in 2013. Proceeds from the sale go back to ETHS, to help pay for construction of a house in the following year. “We’re trying to find people who have a hard time finding housing” in Evanston, says Sara Flax, the city’s housing and grants manager.įlax says taking part in the construction project “gives some of the kids an appreciation of how difficult it is to afford to live in Evanston.”īecause the project is a cooperative venture between ETHS, the city, and Community Partners for Affordable Housing, the student-built house will likely sell for about $190,000, less than half of Evanston’s median price for a house. There are income restrictions for eligible purchasers. The target market for the two-story, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom house is the first-time home buyer. “Then you see proficiency.”īesides teaching, the course’s second purpose is to provide a home for a moderate income family in a city where housing costs are anything but moderate. “First you see the struggle,” Kaiser says. However, he adds, “once you physically put the tools in their hands,” real learning takes place. “For most students,” Kaiser says, “it’s a very foreign concept of what we do.” Matt Kaiser, construction teacher for the class, says “most kids start clueless” about how to build something. Yes, that Pythagorean Theorem you once learned and forgot is actually used in construction. First, it gives students a chance to apply theoretical math concepts to real-life situations. The house was built by about 100 students, mostly freshmen, in the ETHS Geometry in Construction class, which Math Department Chair Dale Liebforth describes as “one of our most popular courses.” That’s what was done this morning, as a home built by Evanston Township High School students was moved by flatbed truck from the high school, down several streets with a police escort, and then gingerly lifted by crane onto its new location, a formerly-vacant lot on Emerson Street near Darrow. Packing up all of your worldly possessions and taking them somewhere else is nerve-racking.
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