MARYSVILLE — The Academy of Construction and Engineering at Marysville-Pilchuck High School offered its students a unique seasonally themed opportunity to test their skills this year.

ACE’s first gingerbread house-building competition attracted an initial pool of nine teams, made up of two to six students each, plus faculty members, when it was first announced Nov. 6, but by the time entries were due Dec. 7, that pool had narrowed down to five teams.

“It was harder than they thought,” ACE Guidance Counselor Nancy Anderson-Taylor said. “One team told us that their dog literally ate their homework,” she laughed.

The goal of the project was to teach students how to carry their ideas from architectural design all the way through physical building, with the additional stipulation that every part of the building material for their gingerbread houses had to be edible.

The winning entrants in this year’s contest, which Anderson-Taylor hopes will become an annual event, envisioned an environmentally conscious gingerbread house. Student team member Kaytlyn Wisely explained that they included a windmill and chocolate bar solar panels for electricity, a rock candy chimney, fireplace and cellar, and double-panel windows made out of melted-down Jolly Ranchers.

“The hardest part was the roof, because when we put stuff on it, it weighed it down so much that it collapsed,” student teammate Axel Phenisisur said. “Finally, we just made it out of uncooked spaghetti noodles.”

Wisely and Phenisisur worked with fellow ACE students Jacob Engen, Tony Winsor and Allan Butler to create the first gingerbread house they’d ever built. Wisely expressed pride in their achievement, while Anderson-Taylor was grateful for the opportunity to interact with the students more closely. ACE Principal Shawn Stevenson echoed this view, touting the time that faculty members spent mentoring their teams.

“You learn to be patient, because it takes time,” Wisely said.

“You have to build it in stages, and plan, plan, plan,” Phenisisur said.

“If you do that, it all falls together,” Wisely said.

“If you don’t, it all falls apart,” Phenisisur laughed.