THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260442
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 56 lines
A group of 17 city school students spent most of the past two weeks building a house so they could take it apart, so they could put it back together again.
The students, participants in the design and construction class of the school division's Science and Math Camp, planned and built a playhouse as a group project. On Thursday, they took off the roof and took the whole thing to the yard of a local family with three small children.
There, they reattached the roof and finished painting the little aqua building with a bright aquarium motif before scooting off like a bunch of elves leaving a Christmas-in-July surprise behind.
``The students have been most cooperative,'' said teacher Roger Crider. ``It's a great bunch of kids.''
The two-week camp, held at Kemps Landing Magnet School, drew 51 honor roll and gifted students from throughout the system. Others took classes in computers or coastal ecology.
But Crider's group spent their time learning about the intricacies of designing a building with finite supplies and in a limited time.
``It was challenging,'' said Kevin Turpin, a 12-year-old Brandon Middle School student. ``I learned how hard construction was.''
``We had a lot of `added steps' - which are mistakes - we had to fix.''
Crider let the kids come up with solutions to the problems raised by their design. A pointed roof rather than a slant, for instance, turned them to the Pythagorean theorem - the geometric standard involving right triangles.
Circular windows rather than square were tough, but proved inspirational for the aquarium theme after the kids decided the resulting portholes looked like fish. The single room, purple-floored structure should snugly fit three small children and an assortment of toys.
Crider said he went to one of the local elementary schools to get the name of a family with small kids and a big yard. That's how they found the Guendoos, who live in a modest frame home on Bonney Road.
The campers divided into work crews to take on the various parts of the building - from roof to floor and everything in between. Whether the students pursue careers in architecture or construction, they learned valuable lessons that will serve them well in life.
``Teamwork is really important whenever you do a big project,'' said 12-year-old Whitney Rheins, a student at Kempsville Middle School.
``I learned that measuring is very, very important,'' said Bethany Kreitinger, a 12-year-old student at Independence Middle School.
And perhaps most importantly: ``It taught us not only how to build things,'' said Kemps Landing Magnet student Michael Miner, 11, ``but it made a family happy by giving them a playhouse with a lot of meaning to it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot
Michael Miner, left, Erika Tribett, Trina Chakrabortty, Elizabeth
Katz, Jane Kim and MacKenzie White used their Kemps Landing Science
and Math Camp skills to build a surprise playhouse for a Virginia
Beach family. by CNB