Students Build Amazing Model at Ridge High School

Students in Mr. Mark Dotta’s Architecture class recently unveiled a scale model of the new “Health Center” wing at Fellowship Village Senior Living in Basking Ridge. At the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, Mary Meier “Director of Public Relations” at Fellowship Village, reached out to the Ridge High School Engineering Department and asked if there would be an interest in building a model. The model would reflect a new wing that is currently under construction. The idea came from a resident who thought it would be nice to have a model on display. Furthermore, residents were having a hard time visualizing what the new building would look like and this would be a great way for everyone to see a scaled representation.

Without hesitation, the Architecture class at RHS was excited to accept the challenge. A model of such proportions is rarely produced by a high school class and they knew it would be a great undertaking. An undertaking that would prove to be an amazing and priceless experience for the students involved. The model took 8 months to complete, where students worked on the project in teams. Because students had to complete other projects within the curriculum, Dotta created a rotation where one or two students would be selected to work on the model on different days.

With help from professional Architect Craig Slater from KDA Architects, students studied and utilized shared elevation plans, site plans and renderings, from which they re-created all the walls, including windows, doors, roof sections and fine details. Students even re-created the site plan by drawing areas of grass, sidewalks, parking lots and driveways. All parts of the model were drawn on the AutoCAD program. Before the final wood model, a foam board prototype was created to assure all walls and roof lines were correct. Finally, students utilized the departments Epilog Laser Engraver, which cut out all the walls and engraved all the windows and doors. A was a great deal of research, collaboration and discussion sessions that took place, as students had to decide and vote on items such as; what materials to use, paint or stain, natural or synthetic, types of landscaping including size and color, and the list goes on! Clearly they made great choices as the final product is of true professional grade.

The students are very proud and excited to have been involved in such a great community project. Dotta, a 2017 NJTEEA Teacher Excellence Award winner, takes pride in providing his students with hands-on, life long lessons that will prepare them for college or life in general. The students learned the value of teamwork, general tool use, woodworking, communication and problem solving skills. Moreover, the model making skills they acquired will be greatly utilized for students interested in pursuing engineering and architecture degrees at college.

Students in group photo;
Front row, L to R - Thomas Saleeb, Ryan Layton, Scott Layton, Aidan Wiehe, Hitha Santosh, Emily Perna
Back row, L to R - Evan Kupsch, Matthew Stamatiou, Sean Richter, Chris Ambrozy, Ryan Lindrud, Warren Halbing