Hampton students in the doghouse for a good cause
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Michael Trimm, a student at Hampton Middle School, hammers a nail during construction of a doghouse for the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society.
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Some eighth-grade students at Hampton Middle School are in the doghouse, but in this case, it's for a good cause.
The students are in Ryan Scott's technical education classes and they are building two doghouses as part of the curriculum. The completed doghouses will be donated to the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society.
"The reason that I developed this unit on doghouse construction is not only to meet state standards for science and technology, but to engage the students in an activity which has a meaningful impact on society," Mr. Scott said. "It intrinsically motivates the students and makes them feel good about what they accomplished. I wanted the students to take classroom lessons and apply them to a real life experience."
All eighth-grade students in the Hampton School District are required to take a technical education class. Mr. Scott decided to do the doghouse projects during the last nine-week grading period as a pilot project. "I found some plans that I really liked online and we used those," he said. Two classes are completing the doghouses.
The course study, actually, goes way beyond doghouses. It began with a PowerPoint presentation on construction technologies and various types of construction.
"We looked at different examples of structures such as high level bridge renovation, Fallingwater, the Burj Dubai Tower, and so on." he said.
Students then moved through a series of lessons, designed bridges and built towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows. "Finally, they learned to draw blueprints according to scale and used these plans to build a doghouse as a class," he said.
Funds for the materials came from the Hampton Alliance for Educational Excellence, a parent organization in Hampton that provides grants for innovative educational projects. "I'm so grateful to them. Otherwise, this would not be possible for this year," said Mr. Scott.
The 42 students from the two separate classes watched a video about house construction before putting their doghouses together. "There are several groups in each classroom. Each group completes a different part of the house, and then we put it together as a class," he said.
For most of the students, this was their first actual construction project.
"I've never built anything before," said Bill Grum who had worked on the base of the doghouse.
Classmate Bret Drill worked on the side. "I've built things before, but nothing this big. I made a birdhouse before." he said, "This is pretty cool."
The best part for Bill was the drilling. "I have never successfully drilled anything, so that was pretty fun. My dad isn't very handy so I learned a lot here," he said jokingly.
Not all students were novices at doghouse building, however. "I built one with my dad," said Corrine Sharp. "We made one for my dog at our old house but this was a lot more fun. We worked on the project from the very start, so I learned a lot."
Gretchen Fieser, spokeswoman for the Humane Society, said the society is thrilled to be receiving the doghouses.
"They will be given out by the Humane Society police officers to those financially, mentally or physically unable to purchase or build their own doghouses for their dogs."
According to Ms. Fieser, the society is always in need of doghouses and while they have received donations from Boy Scouts and other volunteer groups, this is the first time that a school has done so. She plans to visit the school tomorrow. "I want to talk to the students about what we do and how they have helped," she said.
While only two classes completed the doghouses this year, Mr. Scott hopes to make 12 during the next school year. "I want every class to be able to do this. We will be looking for donations but I think we can make it work," he said, "The students really seem to like it."
Taylor Smith, one of the students agreed, "I really had fun but I also feel like it was generous of the school to let us donate them. I am glad we got to do this."
First Published June 5, 2008 12:00 am
