Metropolitan Community College students are erecting a house inside a building, and the concept makes perfect sense to everyone there.

Building the house while inside the new Construction Education Center on the Fort Omaha campus in northeast Omaha gives faculty members the chance to conveniently observe the more than 100 students who will eventually work on the project over the course of the school year.

Working indoors has had the secondary benefit of keeping everyone out of the cold.

“When it’s negative 2 out, we can still work on it,” said Nathan Barry, dean of career and technical education at Metro.

The project affords students in a variety of trades an opportunity to take part in constructing a real house and seeing the importance of teamwork. It also maximizes the hangar-like space in the Construction Education Center, which itself was finished just a few months ago.

Erecting the three-bedroom, two-bath ranch house is no practice run, Metro President Randy Schmailzl said. It will be somebody’s home.

“That’s meaningful education,” Schmailzl said.

Sometime in late spring or summer, the Metro team will roll up the wide door facing north and take out the house in three sections on a flat-bed truck. They will take the sections to a vacant lot at 5603 N. 30th St. The sections will be attached, a garage will be built, and finishes will be made.

View full article: https://www.omaha.com/news/education/students-at-metropolitan-community-college-build-a-house-and-get/article_9f7d0420-f247-557e-afb1-db8a7e139684.html