AHS students gain valuable building skills while helping homeless

ARLINGTON- Five Arlington High School students are competing in the Career and Technical Education Showcase of Skills Homeless Shelter Project on March 27 in Olympia.

In all, 22 teams of high school and college students will compete by building homeless shelters.

The students are part of the AHS two-period Construction Geometry class.

Part of their time is spent learning the geometry of construction in the classroom; the other part they’re in the shop building the shelter and other structures, such as sheds, stairs and sawhorses.

Once they complete the class, they receive credits in both geometry and CTE construction.

“Geometry skills translate very well to construction,” construction teacher Scott Striegel said.

“In addition, the students are learning how to build to code. Before we started on the shelter, they built a small balsa wood model of the building.”

The students are learning how to build a base, how to frame and roof a house, and also how to install insulation, vinyl flooring, doors and windows on the 8-foot by 12-foot shelter. Once completed, it will be partially disassembled and transported to Olympia. Each team received a $2,500 grant to pay for supplies.

“We’re learning some very useful and marketable skills in this class,” 10th-grader Caden Smith said.

Following the competition, the finished shelters will be transported to Seattle where they will provide transitional homeless housing.

“I love to see that the skills I’m learning in the classroom can be used to build a structure,” ninth-grader Megan Scott said.

“Not only are we learning some great skills, we get to help others at the same time.”