Kid blowing bubbles out the window of a playhouse
As a way to address the dwindling construction workforce, a carpentry teacher at Anoka’s STEP high school decided to go back to the drawing board.
Tim Nestrud dreamed up the Playhouse Challenge, a contest that culminates in the judging and auctioning of tiny structures built via tech-ed classes throughout Minnesota.
Students design and build a children’s playhouse in their woodshop class, with the aid and oversight of a teacher. “I’d like them to get that experience of drawing up a plan, building according to plan, and finishing it,” says Nestrud, who coordinated this year’s first-ever Home + Garden Playhouse Challenge competition. “The floorplan cannot be bigger than four by eight. I figured that way more schools could enter because we’re not talking about big buildings—we’re talking small, but the concepts are the same.”
So far, nine schools have committed to participating in this year’s competition. “Creativity is part of the contest,” says Nestrud. The guidelines are loose: anything flies, from fairy-tale castles to traditional cottages—one school’s art department is even getting involved by adding color to its structure.
Students from each school will represent their playhouse during the Home + Garden Show, where the winning design is judged by local industry experts and a popular vote by kids. Each playhouse is auctioned off to the highest bidder at the end of the show, with proceeds benefiting Habitat for Humanity.
“The big draw of this is that it’s high school students designing and building; it’s their project,” says Nestrud.
»Back to Minneapolis Home + Garden Show 2020
