Foxborough High Team Finishes Second in 2012 Construction Career Day

By Amy Berdos, Ed.D.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools

Foxborough High School students Nicholas Roche, Mike Tally and Ryan Smith represented the 21-member award winning Construction Career Day  team as the teaching and learning highlight at Monday's school committee meeting.

FHS students were awarded second place at the 2012 Construction Career Day competition at the New England Trainers Academy in Hopkinton. Students and their teacher,  Ralph DiBona gave thanks to Ellen Pillsbury for coordinating the opportunity for them to attend the competition and also expressed gratitude for the generous support of Invensys and their continued financial support for software upgrades to the CAD Lab.

The students displayed their winning model and described the CAD project from early design ideas to full scale development.

DiBona said that the standard was set high based on prior year's performance and the students did a great job. "We learned a lot about what it takes to build a house and it was a fun experience," explained Roche, who is considering becoming an engineer.

The 21-member team collaborated on the project which first began by compiling ideas and deciding on the best design plan. They had to investigate building codes and research effective designs for backyards which incorporated actual building codes and safety requirements.

In addition to students working together on the design, sketches, research, manufacturing and constructing of the model, the team collaborated with students from the art department in order to bring their project to completion.

Design and drawings were completed in both 2D and 3D drawings using the school's Computer Aided Design software. This year, the competition was fierce and included technical vocational high schools for the first time.

Unlike other projects, FHS students had no pre molded pieces in their model and completed all parts of the construction project by hand. This earned the group additional accolades and impressed the judges said DiBona.

The boys explained their part in the collaborative effort, Ryan took responsibility for manufacturing, Tally handled the building with help from Nick on 2D drawings using advanced CAD, and according to the team, Roche was also the spokesperson that "wowed the judges!" 

DiBona praised students for completing all the work of their award winning project on their own spare time, "it was quite an accomplishment."

Students' critical thinking, collaboration and real life connections were evident from the initial design phase to the scaled model drawing showing 21st Century Learning in action!