Hands-On Learning at Obsidian Middle School
Walk into the back half of the weight room at Obsidian Middle School, and you hear it before you see it. Drills spinning, a saw finding its line, 60 seventh- and eighth-graders discovering what their hands can do. Dan Grubb built this space out of almost nothing, and now it hums with the sound of kids making something real.
Dan teaches science and career technical education in this revamped space, though the real lessons started long before he had a classroom of his own.
Repair, reuse, recycle
As a kid, Dan spent summers at his grandpa Dexter’s cabin in northern Minnesota, “...an hour by boat from the nearest hardware store,” he recalls. Out there, you fixed what broke or you did without. Repair, reuse, and recycle. That became his rule, and it still shapes how he teaches. (His wife calls it hoarding; he calls it a resource pile.)
His own path into the trades ran straight through a middle school shop class, where a teacher named Mr. Lloyd handed him his first power tools and one unforgettable safety lesson. Years later, Dan walked back into that same building as a substitute and felt the full weight of how much those early mentors had shaped him. Now he wants to be that person for the students at Obsidian.
Building something from nothing
When the school handed him half the weight room to launch a new intro-to-trades elective, Dan got resourceful. Picnic tables and a salvaged solid-core door became a workbench. He borrowed tools from custodian Ms. Lisa, brought in his own, and rescued a pallet of old power tools headed out of the district warehouse. One of them was the same kind of disc sander that took his fingertips back in seventh grade, a story his students now know by heart. A hand-lettered sign in the shop says it plainly: “Tough to hitch a ride without a thumb. Safety first.”
Getting the class off the ground took grit, a donated wood-working kit from Mrs. Bernardi, and the trust of leaders like Superintendent Dr. Cline and Principal Mr. Grant, who believed an old idea was worth reviving. The room had once held a full woodshop before the tools disappeared, and the trade electives quietly faded away. The extension cords still hung from the ceiling, waiting for someone to wake them up.
The Makeover
SELCO’s Classroom Makeover is what brought them back to life. The half-empty room turned into a working shop. Renovated cabinets now line up the walls. A row of cordless drills hangs ready on the pegboard; chargers labeled and waiting. With real tools, sturdy storage, and proper safety gear finally in place, Dan can run the program the way he always pictured it. Students rotate through modules in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, and IT, learning safety habits, teamwork, and the confidence that comes from solving a problem with their own two hands.
Here’s the twist that sets Obsidian’s program apart: Every module ends with a project that helps someone beyond the school walls. In the carpentry unit, students finished their first set of Northern Flicker nest boxes for Think Wild, a local wildlife hospital and conservation center. Friendship benches for the schoolyard come next, a spot where kids can sit, talk, and where student leaders can mentor the next group coming up. The electrical and plumbing units will take on simple circuits, light switches, and PVC irrigation lines, with conversations already underway to partner with Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in Bend.
Why trades can’t wait
The need behind this work is real. Across Oregon and the country, skilled trades are facing ongoing workforce shortage, and many students don’t get meaningful exposure to those careers until it feels too late. Middle school is exactly the right moment to spark interest, to let a student stumble onto a path they never knew existed. Dan understands that firsthand because a few patient shop teachers once did the same for him.
This is only the pilot year. Dan is already building a network of local tradespeople and organizations, the kind of mentorship and momentum that keeps a program alive long after the first set of tools wears in. Sixty students now, many more on the way. And with every bench, birdhouse, and circuit they build, these kids are leaving something lasting behind for the community we all share.
