Hands-On Design and Construction of Light Frame Buildings in the Light Frame Building Systems Course

A specialization in Sustainable Building Systems is offered in Biosystems Engineering. We have observed that many of our students have little practical knowledge of, nor experience with building construction. Since the introduction of this course a design project integrated with hands-on labs has been included. The importance of hands-on learning is reinforced constructing a small-scale building. Students use the knowledge from this class combined with skills learned in other courses in their program to design and build a prototype. Linking design to construction gives the students a unique opportunity to gain insight into the relationship between theory and practice, while also learning from their “mistakes”. This paper summarizes three yearsof experience teaching this course.