Glenbrook South Geometry in Construction course takes mathematics out of the classroom

Taught in a traditional way, geometry can be an abstract science a student may have trouble grasping.

In Glenbrook South High School's Geometry in Construction class, it provides solid, real-world results of its proper application.

Jointly taught by math teacher Brian Schmalzer and Dan Leipert from career and technical education, Geometry in Construction is a destination class for Glenbrook South students.

Requiring entry by application, typically up to 65 students try win a lottery to get into the yearlong course. There's usually a waiting list.

"It's a real special class and a real special environment," Schmalzer said.

Using curriculum initially devised by two teachers at Loveland High School in Colorado, Schmalzer and Leipert have taught the course the last six years. Past Glenbrook South GIC students have built walls for Habitat for Humanity homes in Waukegan, Schmalzer said.

"It's just one those classes that is so unique. I would have loved to have taken this class when I was in high school," Leipert said.

The main project this year, which will resume outdoor work after the winter weather breaks, is essentially a tiny house that'll go on top of a camper. The plan is to sell it at auction.

"We're basically framing what will look like a house but it's going to function as an RV camper," Leipert said.

The trailer from Trailer Made, whose line includes units specifically for tiny houses, has already been purchased, and awaits.

The goal was for the class to create the framing this school year. Installing the interior plumbing and electrical fixtures may have this project last up to two and a half years, the teachers said. Leipert was seeking volunteers in those trades, and donations for items such as windows.

Meanwhile, the class is creating small-scale balsa models indoors and finishing working on an expansion of the football equipment shed under the bleachers at John Davis Stadium.

Charlie Gass, a senior who had enrolled in GIC as a sophomore, said he helped build a tool shed for Wagner Farm.

"On the construction side we learned how to read plans, like the construction plans for walls, do the studs and the cripple supports (or studs, that in this case connected the base of the window to the baseboard of the wall)," Gass said.

"We learned about different types of nails, the difference between pressure-treated and non-pressure-treated lumber. We learned how to use saws, we used the circular saw a lot. We learned how to use a speed squarer (a triangle with a square on one side to derive 90-degree angles)," he said.

Rarely has geometry sounded as appealing.

"It's been, quite frankly, a fantastic professional challenge, just because it's so different from a normal math curriculum, and the kids love it, which is what matters most," Schmalzer said.

Gass retained the knowledge of circles and triangles, and used what he learned in the GIC class and a prior wood shop class to create projects in Boy Scouts.

"It definitely revealed an interest in building stuff," he said.

Stephanie Wolfson, a past GIC student from the Class of 2019, won the Skills USA Carpentry Competition. Leipert said Utopian Villas, a Wisconsin company that makes tiny houses, has inquired about putting GIC students to work.

Current GIC student Kamil K. Gobcewicz, a sophomore, had a head start. His father studied as a mechanic in Poland and since moving to Chicago, then Glenview, has opened his own construction company for which Kamil helps occasionally. His favorite tool is a hammer; his favorite wood, "any wood that doesn't chip," Kamil said.

"The math is actually a lot easier than you would think," he said. "It's like regular geometry, instead it focuses on the construction part. We learned how to do the math for a rafter."

He's used slopes, ratios, the Pythagorean theorem.

"The math part is necessary to the construction part," Gobcewicz said.

The class is designed for students to alternate time in Schmalzer's geometry classroom with work done in the field under Leipert on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"Contextualizing the mathematics with real-world purpose that can then turn into hands-on activity or example is kind of where this program earns its stripes," Schmalzer said.

"When the students then see the purpose behind the math and get to engage with it in their construction tools it makes the math more purposeful and it aids in their retention of the material."

Students advance past mere visualization. Their interest increases. The class works together. Teachers and students build relationships as well as models, walls, sheds.

"The class is a really fun class, I look forward to it every single day, and I think more people should be interested in it," Gobcewicz said.