Mead Students Nail Down Real-World Lessons
Steve Pope believes in giving his students a good foundation - followed by walls, trusses and roofing.
For the eighth time in the past nine years, Pope’s construction class at Mead High School is learning by doing.
There’s no final exam in this class. Instead, there will be a 1,700-squarefoot rancher on a one-acre lot, all worth about $175,000, that the 10 students in Pope’s class will have built by the end of spring semester.
“In regular classes success is a oneshot deal: test on Friday - pass or fail,” Pope said. “The beauty of this program is kids will do a calculation until they get it right. It’s a competency-based curriculum.”
Students are learning how to read blueprints and how to calculate layouts for staircases, walls and rafters. After they do the paperwork, they do the construction work.
By the end of the course, many of the students will be ready to go to work in the construction industry if they want.
“This class has given me my future,” senior Joe Peterson said. “It’s the first thing that has interested me in school. Now I know what I’m going to do with my life.”
Pope expects students to work like professionals.
With his easygoing manner, he steers them through the building process. Students respond with enthusiasm.
“Relevance is the bottom line,” Pope said. “Many of the kids in my class don’t live in the realm of things that aren’t tangible.”
Many students, including freshman Jason Bishopp, say they are pleased to find a practical purpose for all the math and science they’ve learned in school.
Lots of North Side contractors offer their time for free or at discounted rates to teach the class special skills such as furnace installation, hanging drywall, and even wiring and plumbing.
“It’s a lot of work,” senior Ty Tibbets said. “If you’re not serious about it, you won’t be able to do it.”
But students like Corey Mitchum and Heath Leyde say this is all they’ve ever wanted to do.
“I’m just a kid following in my father’s footsteps,” Mitchum said. “I’m learning a little base knowledge before I go to work with my dad at his business this summer.”
Leyde and Mitchum see construction as a good field for them to open their own businesses in some day.
Ron Morris of Ron Morris Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. looks forward to working with Mead’s construction class every spring. He’s so impressed by them that almost every year he hires a Mead student to work for him.
“You can’t sit in a classroom and learn this stuff,” Morris said. “Our society tries to jam down kids’ throats computers and college. But these kids are running around here learning, and they’re busy.”
As senior December Lozano took her turn hammering up a panel of siding, she looks as if she’s been doing this work for a long time. The hands-on work has inspired a new confidence in her own ability to work in a traditionally male profession.
The North Spokane Exchange Club pays the costs of building the house each year and then sells the house when it is done.
Science conference for girls
What do schoolgirls think about doing when they grow up?
More and more are thinking about becoming engineers, pilots and architects.
Educational opportunities for girls are changing. And the third annual “Expanding Your Horizons” math and science conference at Spokane Falls Community College hopes to alert girls and their parents to the opportunities.
The fair will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 25. About 1,000 girls, from seventh to 12th grades are expected to attend.
Conference registration is $10 and includes lunch and a T-shirt. Registration material is available at school career centers, through math teachers or by calling 245-3518.
The conference will have workshops featuring women professionals in technical careers. Girls will choose three workshops to attend through the day.
“We focus on the technical and non-traditional careers that require a lot of math and science,” organizer Grace Tiscerno-Sato said.
“We want to impress girls with the importance of taking math and science in middle school and high school. We want them to find out what it takes to get into math and science careers and how to prepare to have career options later.”
Riverside jazz choir a winner
Riverside High School’s “Touch of Class” jazz choir won a first-runnerup trophy for division A schools at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho, choir director Jesse Wittock said.
Riverside beat out schools from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and California, losing only to Pullman High School.
The 25-member Riverside choir heard other schools compete and heard singer Lou Rawls perform in concert. Riverside performed “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “It Had to be You.”
Featured soloists include seniors Karyn West and Darwin Sessions, juniors Josh Baker, Dana Davis and Marc Horton, sophomore Catherine Berube and freshman Maggie Fornia.
Lessons in giving
Students at Shiloh Hills Elementary spent last month collecting pennies - $370 worth of them - for the Spokane Food Bank, and writing essays about the need for giving.
Three students, who wrote especially thoughtful essays, were asked to choose their favorite charities, so the Shiloh Hills student council could make a donation to them.
Third-grader Jessi Shoemaker chose Ogden Hall. Second-grader Jenny Leaning chose the American Red Cross. And second-grader Liaj Xiong chose the Ronald McDonald House.
MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.