Morning Journal/Danielle Garner
Dan Perry, Vice President and Chief Retail Officer of Buckeye State Credit Union observes the project from a group of students in the Crestview Middle School gym Thursday afternoon.
NEW WATERFORD–Sixth grade students gathered in the Crestview Middle School gym last week for a Celebration of Learning for the Silver Apple project. Crestview partnered with Buckeye State Credit Union challenging students to plan construction of a Columbiana County branch.
“This is the coming together of the business and school partnership” said Crestview Middle School Principal Allison Lemaster. Students were introduced to the challenge six weeks ago and tasked with finding a property and designing a building.
Part of the event is filmed and will be submitted to qualify for a Samsung Grant, Samsung’s initiative to support digital education and provide digital instruction solutions for classrooms.
Students researched property along with zoning, cost effectiveness, commercial land and environmental impacts of construction.
According to Lemaster students evaluated impacts on the eco system and green spaces around their chosen property.
Jeff Gill of Columbiana County Educational Service Center staff came down and taught students Tinkercad.
“It’s so important to start early,” Tony Miranda of Silver Apple said. “We want to help invest time now to find what their purpose in life is … we want to develop that through hands on application.”
Eight representatives from Buckeye State Credit Union were on hand judging students on their projects. Judges gave feedback on models, location and environmental friendliness.
Students completed independent research and worked in groups to complete tasks involving zoning laws, ratios, area and perimeter measurements, persuasion and geography.
“In other classes you usually work alone or with the teacher to get the answers but with this we worked as a group and we didn’t have much to go off other than the websites they gave us and we had to research to see all the stuff,” sixth-grade student Aiden Forinash said. Forinash said the group looked for a lot including flood zones and accessibility to main roads.
“You get to physically do stuff like on a computer. You get to visually see it and stuff,” sixth-grader Levi Coppersmith said.
Forinash said he learned a lot about making compromises and communicating with his team members.
Lemaster was impressed watching students learn how to use 3D software in a short period of time and ambitiously applying the software the next day.
“They just jumped right in and I think seeing these kids take that chance and not be afraid of the new software and go out on a limb is wonderful to see.” she said.
Miranda recognized Crestview School District as being the only school district among those working with Silver Apple to engage students from kindergarten through high school with five industries.
