A community service project completed by seventh graders at Jones Middle School in Buford has introduced students to the fields of development, architecture and construction.
For six weeks, 550 students worked together during their homeroom time to complete more than 65 LEGO structures on deadline for the A-Town LEGO City community service project, which was led by school principal Lin Thornton and artificial intelligence instructional specialist Olivia Hyun.
The project was sponsored by the Panattoni Development Company, Alston Construction Company and Ware Malcomb Architects in partnership with its client, Target Corporation. At the conclusion of the project, representatives from Panattoni Development and Alston Construction hosted an assembly to reveal the LEGO city on March 22 at the school.
Throughout the six-week project, students took on roles as general contractor, project manager, construction manager, scheduler and more, and they were provided construction documents to complete the LEGO city. Students focused on how artificial intelligence and advanced technologies are used in the fields of development, architecture and construction.
“The goal of this program is to inspire the next generation of construction professionals,” a LinkedIn post by Panattoni Development Company stated.
According to Gwinnett County Public Schools, the project gave students insight into the following areas:
- Creative problem-solving, which included design thinking, creativity and collaborative leadership
- Applied experiences in robotics
- Ethics, including decision-making, bias and principles of philosophy
- Data science through modeling and visualization
- Mathematical reasoning using computational thinking
- Programming applying logical reasoning
FEATURED PHOTO: Students at Jones Middle School in Buford participated in the A-Town LEGO City community service project, unveiling the finished city on March 22, 2023 at the school. Photo courtesy of Gwinnett County Public Schools.
