Seaman High/Topeka Habitat's Twelve Year Partnership

 

Additional Links:

View the online photo album of the projects over the 12 year partnership

 

Follow one building project with the class of 2004 - 2005

 

SHS 2005 Project HouseImagine learning to drive a car by logging hundreds of classroom hours, studying the rules of the road, watching driving videos, taking tests but never getting behind the wheel! Words like "impossible", "scary", and "ridiculous" may come to mind. Most people would agree that the classroom part of a driver's education course is indispensible. Yet without the "windshield" time spent on the road, "would-be" drivers lack the driving experience needed to be safe, confident drivers.

Fortunately, this is not the model used to teach student drivers. Most schools offer a blend of classroom and on-the-road instruction. Sadly though, the model for teaching many subjects such as architecture in our schools is one which offers little "hands-on" experiences. Typically an architecture class will devote much time to "note taking", technical drawing, and reading about construction and little or no opportunities are offered to learn building skills from the blister end of a hammer.

In 1997, the students got their opportunity with a joint effort between Topeka Habitat for Humanity and Seaman, Washburn Rural and Shawnee Heights High Schools. The house was built, and new ground was broken in teaching building skills to high school students. The next couple of years, the partnership between Habitat and Seaman High School continued with building houses on the job site, which became a classroom for five school days. Students loved the experience and learned a great deal but the process fell short in some respects.

SHS 2005 Project HouseAlthough the class worked very hard to prepare and build the Habitat House the most that could be accomplished in one week was the house framing, the roof and setting the doors and windows. Students didn't get to experience building a finished product. This much work in a week is a tall order for students who have only been exposed to building from within a classroom. But add to that the challenge of finding five days in a Kansas spring that didn't rain.

Bad weather is bad news when it comes to school scheduling. It's not just a matter of postponing construction for a day or two. Students have six other classes that they are responsible for in addition to agreeing to build a home in five school days. A school day is not a normal building day. The team typically started at 7:30 a.m. to get a good start but good intensions were soon eroded when some students had to leave to return to school for physics or needed to leave right at 3pm to be on time for track or baseball practice. Bloomfield had to coordinate with other teachers who volunteered to cover his classes while he was on the project. It's obvious that all of the coordination no matter how cleverly devised can go down the drain with a gentle rain. None-the-less the Seaman staff and students pulled together and accomplished what they set out to do.

SHS 2005 Project HouseDespite the bad weather, and all the rescheduling between school and construction site the habitat house took shape in a hurry. The local neighborhood watched the team of energetic high school kids virtually attack this project. All of the weeks of preparation and rehearsing paid off. Sounds of pounding hammers, measurements being yelled out, and power saws chewing through lumber filled the air as the small house began to reach toward the sky. Theory was being put into practice! Students were experiencing a sense of pride and accomplishment as "their" house took shape. Smashed thumbs, bumped heads, and working up high were new experiences for these students that weren't found in the textbook. In spite of the bumps and bruises, morale soared. Kids want to "be where the action is".

But what if the project could be approached from a house manufacturing perspective? Bloomfield imagined that Seaman High could become the manufacturing site. The building could become an on-site laboratory for architecture students, cabinet making students, and home interior students as well. If the house were built on the Seaman campus, students could work on it for an entire school year not just five days. A finished product could be handed over to Habitat not just an enclosed house shell. As for Mother Nature, she could do as she pleased, students still needed classroom instruction. Once the house was complete it could be moved to its new foundation.

SHS 2008 Build TeamNaturally the idea of building the house on the school campus and moving it to a permanent site emerged. With the vision of Mr. Emery Fager, the chairman of Topeka Habitat for Humanity, and the generous support of the school district, businesses and individuals, our partnership created an "on-campus building lab so that students could build houses outside the back door of the school. Beginning with the 1999 school year, the construction science classes had a full year to study building and experience the full construction process.

Seaman High School has continued this tradition of building a Habitat for Humanity home each year on the school grounds as part of their educational experience. In 2001 two homes were constructed, one of which was a "24 hour build" project, constructed using the "on-campus building lab". Each of the houses built at the school are transported to the final destination through a partnership with KanBuild Homes of Osage City.

To date, the partnership between Topeka Habitat for Humanity, Seaman High School and KanBuild Homes has provided homes for 13 families in the Topeka area, with the students busily working on number 14. Topeka Habitat would like to offer a special thanks to Emery Fager who helped make the building compound a reality, to John Bloomfield who initiated the program and has kept it going year after year, and to KanBuild for providing transportation for all of the projects as well as construction advice and support.