MALDEN — The sound of hammering, stapling and moving materials on Salem Street is the culmination of a nearly year-long project by Malden High students to build a 150 square-foot energy-saving house.
No one will live in the house on the high school’s front lawn. It will be a year-round interactive classroom, according to high school faculty member Brian Morrison.
Morrison, a physics teacher, and Chris Bazzinotti, who teaches technology, are overseeing the project by 20 students who divided their time between construction and classwork in environmental science, circuitry, clean energy generation and construction.
The teachers also collaborate in supervising the Malden High robotics program and team, which recently finished eighth in the world at an international competition held in Oklahoma.
“The kids are very excited about this and have done a tremendous job,” Morrison said. “It is a project they’ve worked on from scratch and now they get to see how their hard work in the planning and fabrication stages is transformed into a finished product.”
The house is being built with the assistance of a “Learn and Earn Grant” from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
The students are working a paid 25-hour work week to finish the house, which will be fitted with solar panels and other amenities.
“We will using it basically as interactive classroom as the school year goes on, beginning in September,” Morrison said. “We will be able to monitor temperature, energy use and other calibrations and measurements. The students feel ownership and rightly so, they made the parts during the school year and they are building it.”
The “Learn and Earn” grant program was so successful at Malden High School this past year that the grant has been renewed for the next 2017-18 school year, said Principal Ted Lombardi. Students also have the opportunity to earn pre-apprenticeship hours through their work on the “Tiny House” through an agreement with the Division of Apprentice Standards, which was recently finalized by school officials, he said.
As part of the program, students are expected to complete more than 80 additional hours of classwork to learn about how to create career paths, write resumes and learn interview skills. They also will be taught lessons about dependability and professionalism in the workplace.
The construction and planning for the energy efficient house began in the “Maker Space” at Malden High School with modular parts before moving to the school lawn. The Maker Space houses technologies like 3D printers, robotics, microcontrollers and electronics, a fully-functioning wood-shop, and the resources to build and experiment with planning and construction.
Morrison said that as part of the project, students have made worksite visits, learning and training with the City of Malden Building Department, Tufts University, and Solar City, a private company.
