{"id":74797,"date":"2020-02-10T18:39:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-schools-cram-big-education-into-tiny-home-construction\/"},"modified":"2020-02-11T01:39:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:39:49","slug":"la-plata-county-schools-cram-big-education-into-tiny-home-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-schools-cram-big-education-into-tiny-home-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County schools cram big education into tiny home construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bayfield
Bayfield High School students and staff place a \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign and flyers outside the tiny home they built as part of the school\u2019s Career and Technical Education program Feb. 6. The tiny home served as a unique way to give students hands-on experience while learning professional skills.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BAYFIELD \u2013 To some, tiny homes are an affordable alternative to traditional homeownership, or their compact structure offers a more sustainable lifestyle. To others, they are just a fad.<\/p>\n

But in some La Plata County schools, tiny homes have become a tool for teaching students professional skills that they can take with them after graduation.<\/p>\n

Durango High School and Bayfield High School students have been building tiny home projects in Career and Technical Education classes since at least 2017. While the CTE programs have built other large structures in the past, the tiny homes \u2013 entirely designed and built by students \u2013 are the most complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked our way up to doing the tiny house,\u201d said Curtis Gillespie, CTE teacher at Bayfield High School. \u201cAll the students are so excited to work on a project like this. \u2026 Their enthusiasm, it\u2019s infectious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bayfield
Bayfield High School sophomore Braxton Nistler gives a tour of the kitchen in a tiny home he helped build as part of the school\u2019s Career and Technical Education program Feb. 6. Students learned about building codes, electricity, plumbing and building framing as part of the project.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At Durango High School, students are working on a tiny home project as part of their CTE curriculum. Bayfield High School students finished their project in September 2019, Gillespie said.<\/p>\n

The Bayfield program started with a simpler project, handmade garden sheds. Then, they built a log cabin with a wood stove, but it didn\u2019t include electricity or plumbing. The tiny home required students to learn new skills and be part of every step of the process, from designing it to hammering down the \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign.<\/p>\n

The 200-square-foot tiny home closely matched the CTE curriculum, and it offered students an opportunity to participate in the nationally recognized Home Builders Institute Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but the start-up materials were affordable, the build site was well-located (at the school), and the price point of $45,000 would put more money back into the program, Gillespie said.<\/p>\n

\"Bayfield
Bayfield High School students clean and prepare a tiny home to sell Feb. 6. They helped build the fully functioning home as part of the school\u2019s Career and Technical Education program.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Different classes contributed to the project over two years. Students designed it in the architectural design class, and they built it in the construction processes class.<\/p>\n

Through the process, they learned about framing concepts, permit and code requirements, job safety, electrical and plumbing systems, and some eco-friendly materials. In the end, they build a functioning and up-to-code home with a bathroom, a full kitchen, loft, fire escape-skylight, patio and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re building something, you have to pay attention to the details,\u201d said Braxton Nistler, a sophomore who helped finish the project. \u201cYou get hands-on experience and that helps a lot of people with learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building provides hands-on learning for students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,1871,592,155,929,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-durango-high-school","tag-education","tag-house-building","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74797"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}