Construction Studies
Construction Studies
Construction Studies is a senior cycle practical subject starting as an option in Form IV. The Whispering House was converted into a workshop with two work rooms, a table-saw room, storage rooms and a classroom.
The subject has three components: a theory section covering such topics as the construction industry, planning permission, urban / rural development and a section covering building, technical knowledge on insulation, heating, foundations, roofing and services.
There is a practical woodwork component during which the student makes an article that has dovetail, mortise, tendon and halving joints, along with chamfers, curves and drilling holes for dowels in wood.
The main practical part is a building project which is backed up with a written report. The project can be a piece of furniture, a model or a wet trade such as a lean-to roof, concrete garden seat, chimney at roof level or other such building component. The old fives courts at the end of the Art Centre is now the construction studies yard where the students have a practical hands-on experience of mixing mortar and block and brick laying, mixing concrete and casting. The marking out and cutting roof rafters, felting and covering is also carried out. In the workshop the plumbing involves each student learning to cut, bend and join copper piping. As a team they have to install a working wash hand basin.
The students have been involved in some small projects around the college such as repairing a leaking tap at the games fields, building a lean-to roof on a shed in the Deerpark and repairing the pathway to Drive classrooms.
