There’s something different about the concessions stand on the visiting side of the Wawasee High School football field. And one that will temporarily be used on the home side beginning with the 2014 season.

The one already used and the other to be used later are projects completed or near completion just a few hundred feet away by WHS geometry students. Through the Geometry in Construction program, students get a chance to see how geometry is actually used in a construction project.

Geometry in Construction is in its fifth full year after a pilot year at WHS. It is based on a program in Colorado and it is believed Wawasee is the only school utilizing it in Indiana.

Jamie McAdams, engineering and technology teacher, and Kem Zolman, math teacher, team up to teach the program. Students spend the fourth hour in geometry class and then all of the fifth hour applying it by building the concessions stand.

This year, 24 students are divided into six groups of four each, McAdams noted. They are assigned specific tasks for each day and given what are known as employability cards. On those cards, students score themselves based on how much work they do.

Knowing the reality of peer pressure, though, McAdams adjusts the scores as needed to ensure accuracy.

It is a challenge to take students who have never used a saw, nail gun or hammer and teach them how to build a concessions stand, or as in other years a shed or cabin. “Many of the kids have next to no hands-on experience in construction,” he said. “I teach them the basics.”

But Geometry in Construction has proven to be a benefit. It has improved end of course assessment math scores by 5 to 7 percent, even for those students who have a lower grade point average. And it has benefitted the building trades program because some students discover they like construction. One of the first students in the program, for example, is now a full-time carpenter for Hursey’s Construction near Syracuse.

Math scores have likely improved, McAdams said, because students can see geometry in action. “It starts to make sense to them and they understand why math is so important when they can see it applied,” he said, also noting geometry is now no longer just another class students are told they must take.

This year’s project is the same as last year’s — a 12 feet by 24 feet concessions stand. It will have a small heater inside, a sink and electrical service, as well as exterior plug-ins. On the last day before spring break, Friday, students were working on the exterior siding and doing insulation and electrical work inside the stand.

It will be used on the home side of the football field while a new entryway to the field is being built. Eventually it may be moved to Wawasee Middle School where it would stay permanently.