EudoraNews.com

Sure, they may be amateurs -- most are barely old enough to drive and only one is of legal voting age -- but the students in Sherm Yacher's seventh-hour technology classes are already beginning to make a name for themselves.

Charged with the task of designing the city's new park at 14th Street and Chestnut Lane, Eudora High School seniors Andy Coffman, William Bock and Brendan Jackson, junior Lance Wilcoxson and sophomores Terry Barnett and Raymond Wellman handled the situation like seasoned professionals, Yacher said.

Eudora High School sophomore Terry Barnett, left, and seniors Andy Coffman and Brendan Jackson go over designs for the new city park on Tuesday at EHS.

"It was a challenge," Jackson said. "We were constantly making changes. Looking at something on paper is a lot different than physically picturing it."

Eudora Parks and Recreation director Bobby Arnold said the engineering budget the city allotted for the project was not very large, which prompted the request to Yacher's class.

Yacher, who has been teaching technology classes at EHS for a year, said he was a proponent of the assignment because it allowed his students the luxury of a hands-on architectural experience.

"What sense does it make for me to have my students do exercises with no physical results?" Yacher said. "Real learning occurs when kids are able to see that what they're doing has a physical, end result."

Coffman agreed that seeing a finished project would provide helpful feedback of the students' work and would also be satisfying.

Technology instructor Sherm Yacher gives a drafting demonstration for his seventh-hour class. Yacher teaches mechanical drawing, architectural drawing, and advanced drafting and design, mechanical drawing, computer assisted design and computer design architectural drawing at the high school.

"A lot of changes were made as we went along," Coffman said. "It's a nice reward to see all of our work come together in a finished project."

Construction, which started in November, is projected to be complete by late spring. The city will hold a naming contest when the park gets closer to completion, Arnold said.

"They set the park just fine," Arnold said. "It would be really fun to use the class again for another project."

Until then, the class will be busy with other designing projects. Coffman just completed an entire drafting plan for his grandparents' new home, and Barnett and Jackson have designed the addition that will go on Barnett's uncle's house.

"I'm afraid that some architect will come in here screaming bloody mary at me because we're taking business away from them," Yacher laughed. "I can't believe what good fortune I've come into. These kids are brilliant. They're off the wall."

The boys aren't even upset that their only compensation will be a pizza party, compliments of the city, at the end of the year.

"The project gave us something to do," Coffman said. "It will pay off later."