CEA presents their Keystone Library Project

courtesy of Mark Lastova

Catie Jo Tansey, Nick Hayslett, Colin Choudhary, and Alec Deyaert showcase their model.

by Catie Jo Tansey, Editor

On January 24 and 25, the fourth Project Lead the Way course, Civil Engineering and Architecture, presented their library project in front of their classmates as well as Mr. Lastova, Mr. Greene, Ms. Thompson, and Mrs. Doll.

Over the last few weeks, these students have been hard at work on their final project. Their final project, The Keystone Library Renovation project, tasked students to take an existing structure and renovate it to create a public library.

This project used a culmination of skills they have learned this semester and served as practice , preparing students present their project in the next course, EDD, Engineering Design and Development, in front of a team of real engineers.

Class of 2019 Alec Deyaert said, “I liked this project because it allowed me to use everything I have learned so far during this course. However, since it is the end of the semester, we had to work really fast.”

The students needed to interview librarians, brainstorm concepts, create rough sketches, and combine all their ideas to create a final sketch, design the building on Revit, build their model using cardboard, complete the calculations necessary for designing a library, and present their pitch all in a matter of a few weeks.

These are the final models the team built.

Senior Charlie Rasmussen said, “I think this project taught us time management that we will need for the last PLTW course EDD. I also got to build the model which was fun.”

The Project Lead the Way program can lead to college credit and is an excellent way to be introduced to the engineering field. If you’re interested, talk to Mr. Lastova in room C106.