Published: June 06, 2008 10:17 pm      

BARKER SCHOOLS: Learning by design

BARKER — Two large geodesic domes greeted everyone entering Barker High School last week.

The structures were standing outside the high school entrance. Both were built by students in teacher Tom Mallon’s architectural computer aided drawing classes and funded by a grant from the Orleans/Niagara Teacher Center.

A geodesic dome is a spherical structure comprised of a network of circles that intersect to form triangular elements. The elements distribute any stress across the entire structure. It is the only man made structure that becomes proportionally stronger as it increases in size. The Barker domes proved that to be true, as both classes that worked on them climbed on top of the domes Friday without a problem.

It was a lot of work, but putting them together wasn’t what took the most time.

“The largest amount of work was before we put them together,” Mallon said.

First, they had to use some math and a little physics to make all of the necessary calculations needed. Then they could order the thin walled steel pipe, or conduit, the domes are made of. Between the two domes there are 330 pieces of conduit, 660 bolt holes, 220 ten degree bends and 440 bends of 12 degrees.

Next came the manufacturing and the assembling of the parts. All of the metalworking was done in just under two weeks, with the assembly of the first dome taking three days or six class periods. The second dome was assembled in one day, or two class periods. The students worked on the domes for a total of three weeks during class periods. The domes can be carried by as few as six kids.

Building a geodesic dome can be a fairly difficult applied math problem. Students were given the task of calculating how big a dome could be built for less than $500, given the fact that the conduit cost $6.94 per 10' piece. The students themselves were proud of it, and despite the work it took, said they would do it again for sure.

“It was sweet to create something and put it together,” said Randy Hildebrant.

Plus working on a project like this cuts down on class time.

“It beats sitting in the computer lab,” said Marty Shaft.

One student even put the Barker dome on a Wikipedia page about geodesic domes, but it was removed shortly after.

The domes can be taken apart, moved anywhere and be put back together now like a kit. Mallon said the students would be moving them Tuesday.

Contact reporter Joe Olenickat 439-9222, ext. 6241.