North Haven Community School’s high school students clamber out of their tents in the cool morning air of Chewonki Campground. Their morning procedure is almost like that of a normal school day-eating breakfast and preparing for class-but today’s preparations are for a most unorthodox classroom setting. Today they will be attending the campus at Shelter Institute, where they will learn the age-old art of post and beam construction. This is not for novelty, nor a lesson in an antiquated trade-the timbers that the students carefully measure, mark and cut will then be ferried out to North Haven and erected as part of the Projects Building, the newest addition to their school.
“It sort of naturally evolved,” says Barney Hallowell, principal of North Haven Community School (NHCS), of the timberframing project. “The kids got very interested in the project, and actually began building their own models of timberframes. It was kind of surprising in a way. And that led to us saying ‘Well, let’s have some instruction.'” The Shelter Institute in Wiscasset was a perfect match for the temper of the project-it has a long running history (35 years) in the teaching and dissemination of sustainable building techniques, and has developed a well-earned niche in the field of “green” architecture. The school has worked with high-school aged students before, but never an entire high school. Instructor Blueberry Beeton says, “We are really excited about it. We’ve offered a scholarship for years, [for one high-school aged student per class], but this is sort of a unique project.” Beeton points out the fact that due to the small size of the school, the entire high school can attend one timberframing class session.
The high schoolers use Skype, (an internet video chat service) to communicate daily with the younger students, updating them on what they’ve learned that day. A visit to the school revealed the whole process-Laura Venger, the third and fourth grade teacher, opened up the video chat service on her desktop, directed through the process by the eager shouts of her 8-year-old students. The high school students are seen live from the classroom at the Shelter Institute, a larger-than-life, pixelated facsimile of their cheerful faces projected on the whiteboard. After some brief technical audio difficulties, (solved by the 4th graders), the high school students begin the presentation of that day’s learning, and this is when the full breadth of the NHCS educational experience begins to unfold. It is fascinating juxtaposition; students utilizing the most up-to-date technology to communicate a time honored tradition, bogging down the bandwidth with lessons on chisel sharpening, mortise-and-tenon joinery, and lumber selection. “But is it fun?” a third grader asks Leta Hallowell, one of the high schoolers presenting the digitized hand-tool lessons. “So fun.” She replies.
The whole process is so imbued with this contrast of natural simplicity and high-tech gadgetry that the two begin to compliment each other in pleasant, unforeseen ways. Impromptu campfire singalongs, covertly recorded, become the soundtrack to their YouTube lesson updates for the younger students. Prior to departing the island for the campground, the high school students were scouring the internet to learn what preparations to make for camping out. See for yourself; the entire project is carefully documented by the students via the NHCS Fall Expedition Facebook page. Rather than being subjected to the dogma of luddites or the flashy hype of technology, these students are offered an open-eyed, comprehensive approach to a wide spectrum of educational opportunities.
Mina Bartovics, a NHCS alumni, is joining the group as a supervisor during the Shelter Institute program. After one day of witnessing the students carefully cut out beams to length and begin carving joinery, she was nearly speechless. “I just can’t believe this is a High School class. It’s just so cool.” Employees of the Shelter Institute, such as Ethan Courand, echo that sentiment, saying “It seems like it’s a great experience for the high schoolers, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
With only five days to complete the cutting of each intricate joint, the students have to work efficiently and skillfully, says Bartovics. “We’re all working at the same time. We were all divided into smaller groups who are working together, and the Shelter Institute instructors come around and help each one of us. No one is sitting around ‘waiting their turn.'”
The Projects Building, of which the students are constructing one 20-foot by 20-foot wing, is integrated into the larger educational philosophy of North Haven Community School, which, according to principal Hallowell, is “experiential project-based teaching and learning. This isn’t going to simply be a vocational shop in that sense, it is really going to be for the whole school.” North Haven has long been recognized for its creative curriculum. The new building will provide an on-campus space to fill the need that has previously been met by members of the community, ones who were willing to volunteer their homes as an annex to the school’s limited footprint. And these community members volunteer for good reason; the students accomplish amazing things. In the past, students have retrofitted two cars to run on electric and grease power respectively, have built two traditional wooden boats, one of which serves as a competitive rowing gig, and some of the younger students have learned how to brew their own biodiesel in the hallway.