In northwest Indiana you will find the town of Syracuse, home to Geometry in Construction Hoosier style. Wawasee High School is a 9 - 12 comprehensive school with approximately 960 students. Teachers, Jamie McAdams (construction) and Kem Zolman (math) launched 2 sections of Geometry in Construction this past fall. What follows is a question/answer session.What is your authentic project? We are

In the final installment of Kidifying Your Class, we want to encourage Geometry in Construction teachers to continue to research ways to hold students accountable for tasks that you have assigned. There is no “magic bullet” for this and it is not for the faint of heart. Teachers openly confess that it is easier to let the student fail than to encourage him/her to work. Before you give up, here

You might notice something a little different if you visit the math department at Roseville High School this year. On any given day, you’re just as likely to find a student in a hardhat, swinging a hammer, as you are to find them with a textbook and a calculator. If so, you can be pretty certain you have stumbled into the RHS Geometry in Construction program.This fully contextualized approach to

Making your class friendly to your students sometimes requires you to rethink how you have done things in the past. Last month we addressed the selection of an appropriate capstone project. This month we continue to explain two more tips we use to make kid friendly lessons for the Geometry in Construction program.SafetyWhen we discuss how we teach safety of tool usage, we always end up stepping on

Strategies for running a “kid friendly” construction site and program. Part 1One of the challenges in running a program like Geometry in Construction has always been, how do you “kidify” difficult construction tasks to make them kid-friendly? Those of you who have ventured on this journey to adopt all or portions of this model may be able to relate. Sometimes what seems rather basic and simple

Forming partnerships with non-profits provides many positive outcomes for your school district and your students. The benefits are worth the work and time. For our district the benefits include knowing that the house is “sold” before we build. The district also enjoys the positive PR that Geometry in Construction generates in the community by building for a non-profit. This is especially important

As a father, as some of you may relate, I always wanted my daughter to have all of the best opportunities. Career exploration was no different. Exposure and exploration into multiple career pathways was always one of my goals for her while she attended high school. Although I was unable to make this happen for her while she attended LHS, I was able to create this experience for my son. This desire

Unless your students are very different from ours, when asked, "What is teamwork?", most of them will automatically think of sports teams they have either seen or been involved with. When you take this a step further and ask them what teamwork looks like in a classroom or work environment there is typically a moment of silence followed by an outstanding dialogue where the facilitator can guide the

When you attend a Geometry in Construction 5 day training, a small portion of time is devoted to establishing effective cooperative groups. It is a vital part of the curriculum. This training is sometimes forgotten so here is a review written from a math teacher’s point of view. Many teachers tell us that they do “Cooperative Groups” but in reality they do nothing more than put students together

Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Washington hosted a 2 day “Infusing Math into CTE “ workshop January 21 & 22. There were 28 people in attendance with 7 school districts represented from all over the state of Washington. Below are some of the highlights of the lessons developed by CTE-Math teacher pairs.At the middle school level, teachers of Project Lead the Way from Evergreen Public