June 5, 2022
WEST EDITION
Westside News Established 1953
Serving Suburban News West and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald edition areas
Serving the communities of Hamlin, Clarkson, Kendall, Bergen, Clarendon, Holley-Murray, Brockport-Sweden
June 5, 2022
Issue No. 23
westsidenewsny.com
Holley students install classroom barn at Homesteads for Hope grade. The class helps students learn how The Holley Middle School/High School math concepts can be applied to real-world Geometry in Construction class spent problems to create solutions. May 26, May 31, and June Students combined their 1 at Homesteads for Hope math and construction skills (H4H) in Ogden, installing to build a 16’ x 32’ classroom the classroom barn they barn for H4H this year. built for the inclusive comIn the fall, students went munity farm. on a fieldtrip to the H4H Math teacher Russ Alfarm so they could better bright and technology understand how this orgateacher Dylan Sharpe conization operates and where teach Geometry in Conthe barn would be placed on struction, with students rothe property. Building this tating between math days additional classroom space and building days each enables H4H to expand its week. There are 19 students in this year’s class, Jaxson Schicker stapling down Social Garden Program, summer camps, and field with the majority in 10th the Tyvek sheets.
Students and teachers working on May 31 at Homestead for Hope: (l-r) Lily Naylor, Russ Albright, Brody Schutz, Mason Merriam, Ben Cox, Dylan Sharpe, Gabriella Houseknecht, and Jaxson Schicker laying on the ground.
Gabriella Houseknecht and Ben Cox working on the classroom barn while Mason Merriam and Dylan Sharpe look on.
trips. H4H is a non-profit community farm that is all-inclusive and provides a place where young adults of all abilities can learn, work, live, and grow. Students planned for the project by working on a scale model of the barn. The barn was staged on a specially built platform at school before it was dismantled and transported to H4H to be installed permanently. This is the third barn that Holley students have built on the H4H property in the last few years. The skills students learn in this class will be carried with them beyond high school to be used in future jobs or to make home repairs. “Students enjoy this class because
they can see the real-world application of math,” said Albright. “Many students who don’t traditionally perform well in math class are performing much better in this class.” The scores from previous years’ Regents Exams continue to show that Geometry in Construction students score better than traditional geometry class students. Regardless of how students perform on any Geometry test, they leave class feeling proud of completing a community service project that helps others. Provided information. Photos by Karen Fien.
A legacy learned at Churchville Elementary School The Churchville-Chili community has a proud, rural tradition that can still be seen in its many working farms and historic barns. Almost half of the fourth graders at Churchville Elementary School say their families or friends own barns. This familiarity with old barns made these students perfect participants for an innovative educational opportunity focused on the question, “What good is a barn in the modern world?” This question was posed by CES Library Media Specialist Katie Andres and art teacher Anne Clancy, who collaborated to design a Project Based Learning experience that challenged students to read, learn about history, think creatively, connect to their community, and become inventive problem solvers. Students began the project by reading “Barn” by
Debby Atwell, a story that spans 200 years of American history, from the American Revolution through present day. They broke into small groups to research the historical events that happened around the titular barn, using a variety of digital resources in the school library. They discussed what they learned and made personal connections to the barn and to the history. “One student lit up as she shared details about her family’s 100-year-old barn with her classmates,” said Andres. The collaboration continued, as Clancy invited the young barn enthusiasts to begin sketching barns to gain an understanding of their general exterior structure and design. “We then presented the problem of our local Wells barns,” said Andres. “One of the few remaining Wells barns in our area just came up for sale. It was once part of a
thriving farm, but now sits on a small plot of land and is in great need of repair to keep it standing. It mirrors the situation of the barn in Atwell’s story.” Wells barns were built with a unique truss design patented in 1889 by Scottsville builder John Talcott Wells. Most of the elegant, cathedral-like structures were built in Monroe County, and fewer than 50 still survive today. Visit www.wellsbarnhistory.com for more information. As part of their art class, students learned more about the design of Wells barns and brainstormed ideas for adaptive reuse. Each proposed a new purpose for the barn and used different art media to illustrate their concepts. Solutions ranged from bakeries, libraries, and indoor soccer fields to special event venues and skate parks. continued on page 15
One of the conceptual barn drawings that will be displayed at the Chili Public Library this summer. Provided photo.