It won’t be a surprise if a few of these Grade 7 students grow up to be engineers or be city planners.
The classes of Katie McIntyre and Amy Erskine at Don Ross Middle School, spent two months envisioning ways of tackling housing issues by looking at their own neighbourhood.
The project was a school district initiative undertaken by students who are 12 and 13 years old.
Squamish project engineer Richard Avedon-Savage came in to help the students gain real world knowledge.
In the end, students created three-dimensional models that were presented to local government officials, including Mayor Patricia Heintzman, for feedback.
The effort and detail of the models was phenomenal, Erskine said.
“Some of them used things like real tree [branches] from outside as their trees and some kids went to the shop and cut up blocks of wood for theirs.”
The kids learned a lot about development and the types of housing in Squamish, the teachers say.
To start the project though, they first crafted two-dimensional plans for the Don Ross and Brackendale area that Avedon-Savage then provided feedback on. Next, the students revised their plans.
“We talked about single-family houses and duplexes and condominiums and how many people fit in those buildings and what it takes to build those and plan,” Avedon-Savage said.
“What do you need in a subdivision — you need roads and street lights and sidewalks… and connectivity from your parks and trails.”
The students learned about assessing competing values, Erskine said. For example, if you want a single-family home, your values are less for environment and more for privacy.
What was interesting was how the students’ values mirrored those of adults.
“I noticed they all wanted a yard, they all wanted a single family home,” said Erskine.
“I thought they would choose to have a lot of big blocks because they also love the environment — because that is one of their main things — but they really felt that everyone should have a yard and separate home.”
The students did provide alternatives within their projects, McIntyre stressed. They incorporated co-housing and apartments, for example.
“Some of them chose to do some commercial stuff and a few of them put a gas station in Brackendale,” Erskine said.
Avedon-Savage said he was shocked how well the models turned out.
“Putting it on paper was one thing, but actually building it and the scale that they came up with and the ideas — it really flourished,” he said, adding “hopefully,” some of the students will be motivated to pursue a career in engineering thanks to the project.
He was inspired to become an engineer growing up on Salt Spring Island, when professors came and showed videos of the Alex Fraser Bridge construction.
“That got me interested,” he said.
