Lizard lovers to project engineers

A fire-bellied newt could just be the key in helping alleviate the shortage of the construction industry labor pool around the country.

At least that's what one teacher at Wasilla Middle School is hoping. For other schools in the district, it is possible the secret to helping the construction industry lies in toilet paper rolls within mock house foundations.

The fire-bellied newt in Deb Petersen's sixth-grade classroom at WMS will be one of 12 species of frogs, two species of newts and salamanders and seven species of lizards to go into a new habitat, which was built through the On Site! program.

During the school year, students worked with construction professionals to design a 5-foot long, 3-foot wide, 2-foot deep habitat complete with a waterfall, river, pond and a forest of vegetation.

"I kind of color a little bit out of the box," Petersen said. "My class decided we wanted to go a little farther than building a bridge. We took the bridge and put it into a student-designed and constructed habitat."

Schools around the district have On Site! toolboxes which detail bridge-building or foundation-building techniques. There are videos and a "construction guy" included in the box.

The classroom then gets with a contractor -- the "construction guy" -- to work on different things associated with the project. While some use toilet paper rolls to demonstrate how house foundations work, others build bridges and load-test them.

For Petersen's class, Duke Dilley of Wilder Construction made the habitat a reality.

Dilley has been a fixture in the classroom, working with students from the concept phase all the way through the finished product. Petersen said Dilley has spent 40 hours "at a minimum" in the classroom, and countless hours at home working on the project.

"The satisfaction of seeing what the students get out of it makes it worth it to me," Dilley said. "The first day I got here they showed me the old aquarium they had and told me what they wanted. I've never built an aquarium or a habitat before, so I learned along with the kids.

"They decided they wanted different views of the habitat, so we went with a plexiglass front that was angled, so they could see all the different things within it," Dilley said. "They came up with those types of ideas."

The students had to complete bids for the habitat structure by finding out how much things cost and what they needed. In the end, much of the material was donated by Spenard Builders Supply in Anchorage, but students still had to research the entire bid package, and examine every angle of the construction industry before they started.

That's exactly why On Site! is so important to the Associated General Contractors of Alaska (AGCA). By working with a contractor such as Dilley and by giving students something that is fun and enjoyable, they are exposed to the construction industry at a young age.

"Nationally, this was born out of two ideas. One, the national average age of a construction worker is about 50, and they will be retiring soon," said Vicki Schneibel, the training director for AGCA. "And two, we haven't been looking out for our own image. Students don't associate the construction industry as being high tech or a viable option for them.

"Our research showed us that as early as fifth- or sixth-grade, parents and students started eliminating career choices already," Schneibel said. "By exposing them to things like the habitat project, or other projects in the On Site! program, they can see how the construction industry works, at a young age."

That's an important concept to the future of Dilley's industry, he said.

"The kids get exposed to both sides of the construction industry. Yes, it can be hard physical work, but there are a lot of mentally challenging sides to construction, too," Dilley said. "It's not as simple as hammering nails all day."

Gus Montemayor, the district's School To Work program coordinator, said projects such as the On Site! program are important tools for the future success of students.

"It's a great opportunity to expose them to new careers that they may not know a whole lot about," Montemayor said. "And it only works because contractors and other businesses let their people come and spend time in the classrooms, away from their jobs. That is such a big help to programs like this."

Experts from several different fields talked to the students about each step of the construction process, making it even more of a community-oriented project.

A pool expert talked about how they can install the pond, while an employee of the city of Wasilla talked to the classes about the water treatment.

Petersen's students are excited that the project is nearly complete.

Yesterday the top was scheduled to be put on, and the frogs, salamanders, newts and lizards will then have a new home. Deciding what species will take residency has been a challenge as well.

"We had to look up to see what the lizards eat and what they can't eat, because we didn't want them eating each other," explained student Brandi Shuart as a frog jumped from her hand. "We basically had to use a lot of math and science to figure out everything."

Each student in the 56-child "team" has a favorite part of the project. For Josh Lindsley, that involves the water, and how it will circulate through the habitat.

"I liked building the pond and the river the best," he said.

Some of the habitat's residents never actually got to enjoy their new home before they were evicted.

"We had some thumb frogs that were expensive, but they had poisonous spots on them, so we had to take them back," said student Amber Garren. "We didn't want them in there with everything else."

Much of the project was built using donations, but the students also got a lesson in business to help raise the rest of the money.

"We had a little store for our team so we could get enough money to buy some of the animals and the rest of the stuff," said Randi Smith.

Petersen is taking the habitat home for the summer, but next year it will be back in the classroom.

"It's something the students can come and see next year and say, 'I did that,'" Petersen said. "It's something they can learn from, and something they can be proud of."

The students are already bracing themselves for what next year's class will come up with.

"They'll probably have elephants running around in here," Smith joked. "It'll look like a zoo."