Putt-ing it together
Mini golf is no small feat.
Building, operating and monetizing a golf course involves weeks of planning and engineering — not to mention the challenge of winning a game with other players.
Some sixth-grade students in Chris Churilla’s STEAM class at Mars Area Elementary School have made it happen, though.
Using recycled, donated materials such as artificial turf, paper towel rolls and bottle caps, these sixth-graders have learned to design golf courses, both with an eye toward the physics of the game and toward the management of golf courses as businesses.
Churilla said this year’s course marks the project’s second year.
“This project has been a couple years in the making,” he said.
Churilla said the idea had evolved as a collaboration between himself and the physical education teacher, Sara Coon. They decided against trying it during 2020, given the uncertainty of the pandemic year, so 2021 was the project’s pilot year. But this year they hoped to make the project bigger and better, he said.
“So with the project that they built, both the fifth- and sixth-graders got to play the course. So these students last year remember playing the course,” he said. “So right away we were able to dive into the project and say, ‘What were the problems with the course last year? And how do we fix them this year?’ So that already gave them a little bit of background knowledge this year.”
Churilla said the engineering and design component of the project involves a lot of math. For example, he said, students had a limit on how many feet they had to work with, so students had to ensure certain slopes formed a 45-degree angle to keep from exceeding a given space.
“Then the ball has to go up the ramp as well,” he said. “They had to do a lot of measurements, so they could be sure that the ball really passes through the course ... So they had to use a lot of interdisciplinary skills, to incorporate that into this project.”
Churilla said the actual building required about five weeks of work, but with planning and other preparation, the whole process took up to two months.
Since Churilla and Coon hoped to improve on the strength of projects from the previous year, they applied for a grant from the Mars Planet Foundation so they could gather better materials for ramps, tunnels and obstacles. They selected wiffle balls, rather than golf balls, because golf balls were too heavy for the course and could damage it, Churilla said.
The most challenging feature of the project intersects with its most rewarding benefits, because students are positioned to take ownership of their projects, Churilla said. Time also presents challenges, he said.
“Things falling apart can definitely be challenging, but they go back and fix it,” he said. “Part of owning a business is the expense of fixing things. Whenever it’s done, it’s not yet finished. You have to go back, and make sure things are sturdy.”
Churilla said several students would take the initiative of showing up early in the morning on their own time, to make certain everything about the course was done and looked good.
Improvements would continue even after students and their families began playing games on the course, because each game could reveal new potential for improvement, he said.
“The collaboration aspect — not just among students, but collaborating as a class,” he said. “They would build an obstacle for the whole group. They would start collaborating with other groups, so that communication factor would involve other teachers ... that community aspect. ... That’s kind of what our STEAM classes are all about, that interdisciplinary approach.”
