VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — The sound of more than 20 first graders hammering real nails into a piece of wood should normally be enough to induce a headache for the adults in the room, but that wasn’t at all the case on Wednesday morning inside Shanda Warthman’s classroom at Southside Elementary School in Woodford County.
“This has been our first dive-in with hammer and nails with 6-year-olds. We were a little nervous, but it's turned out to be a great day, for sure,” Mrs. Warthman said.
A great day indeed as the school’s Project Based Learning program kicked into high gear with a visit from the contractors from Ball Homes. Ball is in the process of developing a 45-house community in Versailles, located just a stone’s throw from the school’s playground. The school decided to use that project as a learning tool.
“So, you’re learning about math, but learning about math for lots that are being built behind our school,” said Mackenzie Durr, Southside’s Administrative Dean.
“Growing up in school, we learned math traditionally and English traditionally. We had our textbooks, and there is substance to that learning, but Project Based Learning creates a project to intertwine into,” she added.
The kids are learning about construction and, more importantly, about the housing crisis many Kentucky communities are facing. They even got a visit from the Mayor, who explained all of this to them so they’d know why the area behind their school had morphed into a construction zone.
“They're making houses because we need people to come live here because it's a great place to live,” first grader Benson Adams said.
The people who ultimately live there might have children who will one day be classmates with Benson and the others. A representative from Ball Homes said the project will be completed in 18 months, meaning these first graders will see it to its completion by the time they head to third grade.
“It’s a great way to have something on campus they can watch in action,” Warthman said.
They got to do just that, as a bulldozer operator fired up the machinery and gave the kids, dressed in hard hats and safety vests, a brief demonstration before they went back inside to complete the “constriction work” they were doing.
“They're seeing the workers, then going in and they themselves are the construction workers today. Seeing it takes resilience, and it takes creative problem solving, so they are having this full experience. It takes learning to the next level,” Durr said.
