Canstructure

Students in Midland Area were challenged for the
second annual Canstruction competition.  Yes, we said
"canstruction!"  This is a competition that encourages
the students to use many different levels of visual 
aesthetics, engineering, problem solving and communication
skills as they construct a sculpture out of canned foods
that have been made possible through sponsors.

The Bullock Creek team used over 1250 cans to construct
their sculpture.  All of this is done to help raise the level of
Hunger Awareness in Midland County.  Midland County
Emergency Food Pantry Network gives away over
12,000 cans per month to families in need.  All of the canned food used in the sculptures will be donated to the EFPN and will be used for the families in Midland County.

The theme for this year's sculpture was “Small things Big”.
Becca Chapman took the theme and adapted it to mean small acts of kindness make a big world.  She discussed the theme 
concept with the other students, Parker Allen, Bryan Chapin,
Arianna Jackson, Becca Leathers, and Nevaeh Moore.  The team then began prepping for the sculptures.  Time was spent on selecting cans that had colored labels and would work with the sculpture concepts and then measuring each can to know dimensions and volume to determine how many were needed.
We tapped into our engineering class and Aerial Vanalstine with the help of the CAD program to figure out how many blue Tuna fish cans would be needed to create a 30-inch diameter globe.  Fun fact it takes 600 cans!
We polished off the rest of the design calculations using Tinkercad.  After the image of the design was developed the 
students then went to the next level of calculating how to realistically assemble the sculpture with the limitations of the competition.  There were restrictions of how thick any leveling materials could be, no tape allowed on labels, and restrictions of staying within a 5ftx5ftx5ft space.  After considering all limitations students then started cutting cardboard to calculate sizes for support of the structure.  The team brought all anticipated supplies to the Midland Mall on Build day and started their process of unpacking all of the food from their pallet of items and then started building.  As you can imagine all of their planning was hypothetical at this point.  So now with materials in hand, unanticipated struggles unfolded so communication and on-the-spot problem solving began.  The team was amazing to watch.  I, as a very hands-on Teacher, could not help other than with words.  (Very difficult! but they were good to remind me)  They kept each other encouraged and motivated during the build as they only had 5 hours to accomplish their task before judging began.  During these 5 hours, there were interviews, TV cameras, Judges' questions, and Pizza as brief distractions!  The student represented Bullock Creek in an amazing way. 

At the end of the day, the students were recognized and received first place for their sculpture.  Five High School Teams participated, Dow High, Midland High, Meridian, ACEA, and Bullock Creek High School.

Along with the sculpture, our school ran a food drive and collected an additional 10 large boxes worth of food to donate.  Thank you to all that participated and took the time to care for others in need.  

The sculpture will be able to be viewed until Sunday, November 14th at noon in the Midland Mall by Bath and Bodyworks.
Dana Murray