Students from Evanston Township High School move house built as part of "Geometry in Construction" course

For more than a decade, high school students in Evanston have been helping to build affordable housing.

It's part of a unique class that gets students out of the classroom to put their knowledge to the test by building homes that are then sold as affordable housing.

On Monday, they moved a two-story home from Evanston Township High School about six blocks away to the North Shore Channel.

Next time a teacher is asked, "When am I ever going to need to know this in the real world?" they can point to an oversized example in Evanston.

"It's one of my favorite days of the year just to see the students' work get moved to its final location. You know, we talk about it all year. We talk about what it means to the community, what it means for our school that we get to do this with them," teacher Maryjoy Heineman said. "It's really, as a teacher, really amazing to witness."

Heineman and fellow teacher Matt Kaiser have been waiting nine months for the operation involving a truck, a house, and a crane.

Before a two-story house was hoisted into place along the North Shore Channel, it was hauled nearly a mile from Evanston Township High School, where geometry students already did the heavy lifting.

"This would've been the class of '25-'26 for our 'Geometry in Construction' program," Kaiser said.

About 100 freshmen and sophomores hammered out the math and built the house on school grounds.

"There's so many different aspects of construction that utilize geometry and trigonometry, and our goal is really to help the students understand and see that, but also to experience the math," Kaiser said.

Students not only aced the assignment, they created affordable housing in partnership with the nonprofit Community Partners for Affordable Housing.

"And they're permanently affordable, so it's not only affordable housing for the first household, it'll be affordable housing in perpetuity," said Community Partners for Affordable Housing vice president Amy Kaufman.

The high school has teamed up with Community Partners for Affordable Housing for more than a decade.

"If you want to feel good about what the youth of today is doing, watch this program," Kaufman said.

You don't need to be a geometry teacher to understand how to build a better community.