|
SDSS students develop trades and skills with new Haiti House project |
Education To Comment on this article Click Here |
||||
 Port Elgin Missionary Church contributed space
A unique construction proto-type |
|||||
|
The old arena in Port Elgin has become home to a unique project and partnership. Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) Construction Technology students have just completed the first phase of a special building project. They have designed and built a 'panelized' house that will enable five at a time to be loaded into a shipping container and sent to a developing nation. The first house is earmarked for Haiti. "This is no ordinary house," says teacher Bud Halpin. "It has several unique features including resistance to rot, mildew and termites. It can also withstand earthquakes and has been field tested to withstand 256 kilometer winds which is equivalent to Hurricane Katrina." Since it is being designed for a developing country, the 440 sq. ft. house can also be assembled in one day by unskilled labourers.
Student Jayce Dunlop with grandparents, Bruce and Marlene Giles
Student Jayce Dunlop worked on the Haiti House project According to Halpin, the grade 12 Construction students started by designing and building an 8 ft. by 8 ft. proto type wall panel. Brent Freiburger of Genivar Engineering, and a former SDSS student, designed a field test to measure wind resistance. The test involved placing weight on the wall and measuring the deflection. A total of 12,660 lbs. was required to equal the 256 Km per hour of wind. To get this amount of weight, students contacted the Saugeen Shores Fire Department. The Department has a water-storage pool that was filled to the exact weight required for the test. Students carefully measured and recorded the amount of water pumped in and measured the deflection of the wall and the resulting information was calculated to determine the strength of the wall. The first wall panel broke at 190 Km per hour of wind and, therefore, was taken apart and inspected. After suggested improvements, a second wall panel was tested to withstand 220 Km per hour but it was too heavy to be practical to assemble without heavy equipment. A third panel of 1/2 inch plywood filled with poured in place polyurethane foam held at 256 Km per hour for one hour, bent or deflected, but popped back in to original form at the completion of the test. The students then made drawings of the single panels, figured out the material requirements and tendered the material to lumber yards. After grade 12 students solved many of the design problems and a system was established, the grade 10 and 11 classes joined in with the needed work force to finish the structure.
|
The integration of subjects will continue next year -
The charitable project is one of many at SDSS where students can make a tangible global contribution. "We are very fortunate in Saugeen Shores," Halpin points out. "We are home to world class trades and engineering and we hope to tape into this even more in the future." Halpin hopes to build more proto-type houses that included one suitable for the Canadian Artic for emergency shelter, temporary housing or for the military. "The vision," says Halpin, "is for SDSS students to work on cutting edge project and doing research and development in housing and energy." The Haiti House will be completed by the end of the next school year (2012), at which time the next proto-type house will be begin. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
|
||||
|
 for
world news,
books, sports, movies ...Tuesday, July 05, 2011 |
||||
