ACE Team 2 is doing well! At our first “icebreaker” meeting of the year, we played Laser Tag at A-Game in Franklin. At this meeting, we also discussed our ACE goals for the year, and started brainstorming our project under the theme of “shelter”. We briefly overviewed each of the common professions associated with building construction, and got a feel for the interests and passions of individual students on our team.

During October, we met with Wasco to practice some bricklaying skills and learned about the roles of contractors and subcontractors, and the skills needed to effectively work in a construction trade. Later, we met with Civil Constructors and learned about site and grading work, and the technologies used by civil contractors to perform their work. The students also learned a little about surveying tools and broke into groups to compete in an outdoor activity to see which group could survey the footprint of a small building the fastest!

In November our team had the opportunity to tour the construction site of the Gulch Crossing building in Nashville. As colder weather set in, we met at the office of HMK Architects, and at the office of Robins & Morton, to work on the students’ “shelter” project, doing various exercises in Programming, Schematic Design, and Design Development. We are looking forward to getting back together in the new year!