BYC Hosts Construction Career Day at Johnakin Middle School in Marion, SC

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BYC Hosts Construction Career Day at Johnakin Middle School in Marion, SC

On Tuesday July 9th, 2019, BYC Director Tammy Ford had the opportunity to participate in the Johnakin Middle School Summer Camp in Marion, SC where she led a “Construction Career Day" for a group of almost 20 attending students.  The 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders ranged in age from 10-13 and the group of students proved to be a captive audience as they attentively listened and learned about the construction industry.  During the BYC presentation, the Johnakin Middle Schoolers got to learn the basics of the construction industry as the topics of discussion included:

  • • The different categories of construction

  • • The different types of jobs in construction

  • • How technology plays a role in construction

  • • Career pathways into the industry

  • • Earning potential & much more!

Day Campers at JMS also got to watch videos illustrating BIM technology and a drone in action performing urban mapping on a building project site.  Next up on the agenda was an earning potential quiz followed by the students then taking the Skills Assessment quiz on the new BYC website.  Groups of students got to take the quiz and find out what construction career was recommended for them based on their answers and then were able to learn about each specific trade profiled—including educational pathways to pursue that specific trade and earning/advancement potential. But the most excitement came during the project-based learning activity the students got to participate in at the end of the presentation (watch the video here).

The students were broken down into 4 smaller groups and all given toolkits that included their building supplies:  20 uncooked spaghetti noodles, one yard of masking tape and one jumbo size marshmallow.  Each group was then asked to choose one member of their team to serve as the project Foreman overseeing the building project.  They were then challenged to inspect their supplies to make sure they each had the proper tools to build their structures.  The BYC Director had previously removed a few spaghetti noodles and had even broken a few pieces before handing out the supplies.  The object was to convey the importance of properly assessing building supplies before beginning a construction project to reduce risks, costs of replacement supplies and lost time involved to wait for more supplies.

Once each group determined they had their complete set of supplies, the “marshmallow building challenge” was underway!  The goal was for each competing group to use their supplies to build the tallest structure they possibly could, in 18 minutes, that could support the weight of the marshmallow on top without breaking, tipping over or being held in place by any of the contestants.  The activity was timed but stopped at 6 minutes in to give the students a choice:  did they want to receive 6 extra spaghetti noodles to strengthen their structures, but loose one worker?  None of the groups decided to proceed with losing one of their valuable workers in order to gain more supplies.

The groups were timed for 6 additional minutes, then were all presented with a second choice:  did they want to receive an extra foot of tape but loose TWO workers?  This time, because some of the groups were feeling the pressure of completion time running out as well as running out of supplies early, half of the groups decided to loose half their team in order to receive additional building supplies.  At the end of the 18 minutes, the groups then had to use a measuring tape to obtain the final height of their structure and convert those measurements from inches into centimeters (teaching the importance of obtaining precise spec measurements!) to determine the winning group.  The winning structure was a whopping 26 and a half inches tall and still easily supported the weight of the marshmallow!

The students and teachers participating had a blast (and so did the BYC Director).   The Johnakin Middle School students were eager to learn and asked extremely insightful questions about the information they learned about the construction industry.  At the end of the day, they even asked the BYC Director to come back next year to teach them more and to challenge them with another building project—illustrating that they truly enjoyed their day learning about our amazing industry!

For more information on the CAGC Foundation’s Build Your Career workforce development initiative, our Contractors in the Classroom program or to volunteer to become a BYC Ambassador, please visit our website at www.buildyourcareer.us/ or contact Program Director, Tammy Ford, via email at tford@carolinasagc.org or by phone at (704) 995-3901. To make a contribution to BYC, please visit our secure online donation portal. To participate in a Johnakin Middle School Career Camp, please contact Caresa Dozier at caDozier@marion.k12.sc.us to obtain more information.