Pasco and Chiawana High School take outdoor learning to a new level with home construction

PASCO, Wash. — Two Pasco high schools are taking outdoor learning to a different level. When you drop off your kids at school, you might catch yourself double checking if they have everything; backpack, homework, hammer? measuring tape?

In Construction Trades Teacher John Marshall’s classroom, it’s not the squeak of markers or the hum of a lecture you’ll hear. A day in his class looks and sounds like that of a construction site.

Marshall teaches Construction Trades at Pasco and Chiawana High School.

“The idea is that we’re going to show all these students every step and aspect of building a house,” Marshall said.

“Every student is different, and some of these kids might never swing a hammer again in their life, but some of them might, they might make their living doing it, and they can make a good living doing it, and they can be they’re employable. And it also creates a kind of a team atmosphere, where some leaders emerge, where you maybe thought they might not,” Marshall said.

Some of the students in the class believe taking the construction trades class will not only help with nailing new career skills but also is a personal experience.

“We were signing up for classes, and i seen construction, and i really wanted to try it out, because I’ve always seen my dad do it, and he’s always asked me for help, but i never knew. So now that i know a little bit, i kind of like it,” Angel, a student from Chiawana High School said.

“This improved my relationship with my dad a lot, because just he’s over here working on some stuff and whatever he don’t know. Sometimes i know LAO, and that’s what helps me out with him, because sometimes he gets confusing. I just help him out a little bit more,” Angel said.

Angel said the experience is something he’s never had before.

“Getting the experience that I’ve never had before, or working with people that I’ve never thought I’d talk to or work with at the construction site, to be honest, and to be honest, i kind of like it working here,” Angel said.

Angel said hands-on careers and life skills are fine tools when it comes to education.

“To be honest, it’s good. Some kids don’t like sit in the classroom, the whole time and they want to be out of school, hands-on on doing some stuff, they never thought they would be doing,” Angel said.

Marshall said this is the 25th house the Pasco School District will have helped build when it is finished in May 2025.

Once the house sells, some of the money goes back to the students in scholarships to either attend a trade school, go to college or start their own construction company.

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