The Milwaukee chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) is leading eight area high schools in a greenhouse construction contest called The NextGen Trades Challenge.
Students from Oak Creek High School, Franklin High School, Whitnall High School, St. Francis High School, South Milwaukee High School, Muskego High School, Mukwonago High School and Greendale High School are competing in NARI’s inaugural greenhouse building competition overseen by NARI’s Milwaukee chapter and its board president Tom Gies, the owner of MKE Design Build.
Beginning in late fall of 2024, small groups of students from participating high schools began constructing a 6- by 8-foot greenhouse with their teams. Each school was given autonomy over how students could join and how the program would be conducted. NARI set basic parameters on size, but gave students and teachers creative liberties for materials and design.
The NextGen Trades Challenge is designed to provide a real-world, trades-related project that connects students, schools and area contractors and introduces the next generation to a career in the trades industry, according to a press release.
“Part of this initiative is being a resource for students and connecting them to potential employers and people in the trades,” Gies said. “The other part of the project is the connection we can make for teachers. If the class is doing a plumbing unit, the teachers have someone they can reach out to for instruction or reference.”
Most of the building materials were donated by Drexel Building Supply and Wausau Supply. Certain schools, if school funding allowed, opted to supplement extra building materials in addition to those that were donated. Members of the program at Oak Creek High School elected to build four greenhouses and equip each with storm doors and a variety of aesthetic elements like skylights.
Matt Lonergan, a shop teacher at Oak Creek High School, used the program as part of the curriculum for a second-level shop class offered at the school. Students in Oak Creek’s Construction 2 shop class used previously learned construction skills to cut timber, erect walls and roofs, caulk and paint the greenhouses before they are transported to the Wisconsin State Fair Park Expo Center for judging from Feb. 14-16.
Winners will be chosen based on structural integrity, design, and overall appearance. There will also be a “fan favorite” award conducted by contest attendees. The winner will take home a trophy which will be kept until next year’s contest, when the trophy will be forfeited to the next winning team.
The greenhouses will be on display until Feb. 16 before returning to the teams for another project of the school’s choosing. Some teams are donating the greenhouse back to the school for gardening and instruction, while others are selling the structures to members of the community to support the shop program. Some may choose to deconstruct the greenhouse as part of a different unit in the curriculum, Gies said.
