High school students learn hands-on while building a house
Northeast Metro 916 Career & Technical Center’s construction occupations class is not like any shop class students might otherwise take in high school. In this class about 40 high school students work together to build a house from the ground up in a single school year.
“There is no better collaboration that I’ve seen ever,” says 916 Career Tech principal Jill Stewart-Kellar.
Instructor Tom Spehn adds, “The students who take my class typically are the hands-on learners, so a lot of students might not have a lot of success in the typical classroom setting that has you sit behind a desk for an hour and memorize theory. Here they actually apply it.”
“I like to do work with my hands mostly,” says North senior Reid Olson who was drawn to the program because of his interest in construction. He is especially excited to see how all the individual pieces of the project come together as a whole.
During the 2015-2016 school year, the students are building a single-family home at 2341 14th Ave. E., North St. Paul.