SI Tech CAD in the Community
Borough President's Hall of Science
When I was becoming a teacher I remember walking up a long stairwell in the Petrides Education Complex to find the office that was supposed to help me get a license and a job. As I ascended the stairs a metal fire door with a small square window caught my eye, and I had to look inside the window. I saw mountains of file boxes and quickly the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark popped into my head where the government was burying the Ark in the massive warehouse.
The room was endless, and I noticed it was not just one floor as there was no ceiling in the middle. Years later I was working with an extraordinary man named Vinny Viola, a legendary IS 34 math teacher who I tag teamed 8th-grade math with for many years before venturing to SI Tech. Vinny had some first hand knowledge of Petrides and told me that was the records storage area where you could find report cards and transcripts from ages ago all neatly filed, for no one to see.
Jackie Patanio, a District 31 Instructional Lead, contacted me, Mr. Erlenwein, and Mr. Manzo to sit on a committee to plan the renovation of this massive two-story, 160+ foot wide room into a brand new exhibition hall and Makerspace for use of all the schools in District 31. I immediately knew that I was included because I knew the ways of CAD and could create a virtual space that was measured accurately to demonstrate possible renovations and arrangements of equipment and materials for the space. There were several people on the committee. We met a few times to discuss what should be present in the room and available for usage by the schools that visited. Modular furniture, display cases, large-scale science exhibition pieces, workstations, 3D printers, sewing machines, and art supplies of all sorts immediately went on the list. The space was taking shape each time a person spoke. I created the virtual model with some insight from some students and it was used to bring in some needed cash to make the renovation happen.
The office of the Borough President, James Oddo, wucikly became attached as a benefactor of the space and eventually the hall became officially named the Borough President's Hall of Science. A massive ribbon-cutting celebration was held with classrooms full of children invited, as well as many Staten Island educators, and the news media. Since opening, they have held countless events in the space, including an event for our VISIT Plus program to celebrate CTE education at the middle school level. This project showed me the capability Revit has in recreating spaces and enhancing them to blow away viewers with the combination of Enscape 3D VR. Since working on this project I have accelerated my own learning of Revit and am currently supervising a VR recreation of our school. To be completed in a year or so.
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Mr. Joe Buro Mr. Mark Erlenwein Mr. Joseph Manzo Mrs. Jackie Patanio Mrs. Christine Goffredo-Zapata D31 Instructional Leads Mr. James Oddo - Staten Island Borough President Jeffrey Li - Student Help David Zhu - Student Help |