You never know what might spark a student’s interest in construction. Such was the case on December 21, 2016, when 10th grade students in the Academy of Design and Construction (ADC) at Grand Rapids Public Schools’ Innovation Central High School enthusiastically embraced their studies in the classic holiday short course favorite – gingerbread house construction. Aileen Leipprandt, an ADC mentor, offers the following account of the students’ successful project.
After spending approximately two minutes in a design charrette guided by Ashley Dunneback (Tower Pinkster), the team broke ground. The first order of business was assembly and installation of the pre-fabricated wall panels (graham crackers). Field fabrication of the panels (snapping the crackers into proper dimensions) proceeded without incident largely due to the pre-scored panels. Attempts to customize panel size by sawing with hand tools (plastic knives) was only marginally successful due to breakage and quickly abandoned. Consistency of the principal fastener (icing) played a crucial role in affixing the panels to the structure (ok, we admit that a shoe box provided well-needed structural support).