Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993                   TAG: 9311080222
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLWORK IS NO ROUGH DRAFT

The project, an informal arrangement between a Bedford company and the school, is mutually beneficial - the students get practice on a real construction job, and Control on Environment Systems Inc. gets its drafting done almost free on state-of-the-art design systems.

Control on Environment Systems has designed a concrete vault system to contain spills from underground storage tanks by recycling any leaking oil. But the company is small and lacks the equipment to deliver a first-class blueprint to potential clients. So Vice President Jon Thompson engineered a deal.

His company provides drafting supplies and software for the class instead of paying much more to hire a private drafter. In addition, the students get to work on a project that will be built based on their designs.

"Whenever you have a student working on a project and when the student realizes that he's actually doing something in the real working world instead of just me putting a check mark on his paper, it's a great motivator," said teacher Allen Morris in the school's auditorium-turned-drafting-studio.

Morris teaches computer-assisted design. Manual drafting also is part of the two-year curriculum, but for technically complicated projects such as Thompson's, computer-assisted is the preferred method.

"It's neater, easier and quicker to change," said Liberty High School senior Bev Chaffin.

Chaffin has worked primarily on the vault design for several weeks. Ten views of the oil-recovery system must fit onto one 24-by-36-inch sheet of paper.

After the first draft is complete, Thompson inspects the drawing, adding any changes or corrections, and returns it to the student. That's the most challenging part, Chaffin said, "Trying to get it like they want it."

And all it takes with computer-assisted design is a flick of his hand to make any changes.

The project offers students their own incentive. "When it's done, you can look back at it and say that really works," said Jeremy Rexrode, a Staunton River High School senior who also helped on the project. "I've never done anything like that before."

That's exactly the reaction Thompson hoped for. "Now the children are working to protect themselves," he said. "It gives validity to the course they're taking."