BAKER — Raw materials for a Baker School sculpture competition have disappeared into local needy families’ kitchens, but the lessons students learned will last a lifetime, said secondary math, STEM and physics teacher Stacy Burlison.
Middle and high school students designed and built “Canstruction” sculptures from full cans of food, which were then donated to area food banks.
See photos from Baker School's Canstruction projects>>
Canstruction Inc., a nonprofit charity that organizes the competitions, provides food to hunger-relief organizations.
For this year’s Canstruction competition, Baker students donated more than 1,600 cans of food. Classrooms that donated the most won cupcakes.
DIVERSE LESSONS
“This project is the one thing every year that I pause class work for,” Burlison said.
But that doesn’t mean the middle and high school students aren’t learning as they ponder how to assemble their sculptures into recognizable shapes without tape, adhesive or paint.
The sculptures can only be held together by gravity and rubber bands. Any needed color must come solely from the labels.
That meant that in addition to physics and visual arts, the kids soon learned about supply and demand. If one group needed cans of a predominant color, they could trade unwanted cans with another group that had the colors they wanted.
“They … had a blast bartering with each other,” Burlison said.
‘THIS IS SERIOUS’
As her high school honors physics boys pondered how to get a cartoon figure’s feet to stick out and bend at the knee, nearby, middle school students recreated social media logos.
“The middle school kids are building the Facebook and Instagram logos,” Burlison said. “My high schoolers, they’re building SpongeBob.”
Winning sculptors received pizza.
“So you can see, this is serious,” Burlison half-joked.
But the biggest winners were area families of limited means. After the sculptures were dismantled, the canned food was distributed to the Holt Food Pantry, Shady Grove Assembly of God soup kitchen and Backpack Buddy, a food pantry that distributes backpacks full of food to students.
Baker School used to participate in a regional Canstruction competition in Destin, but afterward, donated cans of food weren’t returned to Baker.
Times have changed, as the school now participates in a more local competition.
“All the food stays in our area now,” said secondary math, STEM and physics teacher Stacy Burlison. “Our area is in need. This is a way to provide food for people right here.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Can-do attitude: Canstruction competition feeds needy, teaches lessons (PHOTOS, VIDEO)