Community Room Remodel

Teacher(s) Name: Mr. Coker, Mr. Biniasz, Mr. Person

School: ACE at Highland Springs

Grade Level(s): Grade 11,Grade 12

Content Area(s): Building Trades, Masonry, Carpentry, Electricity

Lesson Summary

The electricity, carpentry, and masonry departments within the ACE Center at Highland Springs guided their students to see trade theory become a reality as they collaborated to create a new community room for the school. Preliminary stages of the project were all student-centered and included research on building codes and safety procedure, objective setting, and team creation. Within teams, various tasks were completed like blueprint creation and timetables/process structures for each department. Finally, the work of physical building began in which skills and tool-use were modeled, emulated, and practiced. Students saw the end result of their hard work and collaboration: a new conference room for the ACE Center in which they could take great school pride and a sense of accomplishment.

TIPC Ratings

Research & Information Fluency

Rating:Approaching

Explanation: Within the Research and Information Fluency category, students had to develop questions, evaluate resources, and propose solutions to potential roadblocks. Some additional evidence that this lesson plan falls within the “approaching” category are more explicitly stated in the lesson but include
-Inter-departmental collaboration
-Building code and safety law research
-Student demonstration of task understanding through execution of on-site trade knowledge.

Communication & Collaboration

Rating: Ideal

Explanation: Throughout this process, the teacher-leaders created an environment where students had to be consistently engaged in collaborating with group leads who facilitated a smooth process, other classmates to ensure a quality job in their section of the project, and other departments to ensure their section fit with the “big picture.”  All three departments worked together to develop a plan to eliminate congestion, miscommunication, and safety concerns.

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Rating: Ideal

Explanation: Students in all three departments had to think critically and apply their trade knowledge to this high-stakes situation. This was not a model or an emulation…it was the real thing; if their measurements were wrong, structural integrity would be compromised. As they encountered problems or experiences that required a different solution than what was expected, students had to recall what they had learned, discuss potential alternatives, seek counsel, advise and implement and new strategy.

 

Creativity & Innovation

Rating: Approaching

Explanation: Students and teacher-leaders had to be creative throughout the entire building process- in how the departments worked together, in how they developed extensive plans that required diverse resources with limited funding, and of course, in the solutions they had to provide for the day-to-day problems they encountered.

Lesson Materials

H21 Lesson Artifacts

Student Artifact

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