On May 18th, 40 of Matoaca High School’s Advanced AutoCAD, Architectural AutoCAD, and Engineering AutoCAD students held an expose for parents and extended family to view as well as other Matoacans.

This expose was a showcase of long-term projects that Mr. Cliff Jones’s students had been working on since mid-January all the way till mid-May. These projects included a variety of complicated bridges, cranes, steamboats, and detailed house plans.

The Advanced AutoCAD students partook in making 6,000 square foot home designs. The plans produced from those students were detailed enough for anyone to look at and be able to decipher. Plans made by advanced students were also very creative and thus realistic to how a person in the real world might have their own floor plan be drawn when trying to build a detailed and expensive house. The students included landscaping, dimensions, wall sections, front and rear elevation, and side elevations.

The Architectual AutoCAD students were able to do the same things as the Advanced AutoCAD students on a lesser scale of a 4,000 square foot home design. They did not include landscaping but did show electrical plans on their house plans. The main difference found in this more beginning class was the rooms tend to stay more rectangular rather than having many nooks and/or extra spaces.

Although the previous two groups mentioned did a plethora of work and apparently learned a lot over the course of the year, the Engineering AutoCAD presentations were most interesting to the eye. These Matoaca students planned and constructed bridges, cranes, and small stream ships. Some of the materials used to do this were copper coils, pulleys, and modeling wood.

“[The bridges and cranes were] set up to look just like the Patomic River would look,” said Mr. Jones, teacher to all three classes.

The cranes, bridges, and mock boats were all under working operation for the expose.

“I was very impressed. My favorites were Gonzalez and Cioflec. Mr. Jones does a good job of keeping kids motivated,” said Ms. Johnson.

Even more recognition is being given to classes like these on a statewide basis. The Virginia Community College System now has implemented a deal with VCU and UVA for automatic acceptance of kids with high enough GPAs in these AutoCAD areas. VCU has a minimum 2.75 GPA and UVA has a minimum 3.4 GPA requirements.

Dr. Wyatt of John Tyler Community College told students about how they can now get a two-year associates degree from John Tyler in Architectural Desktop and start out making up to a 40 K salary. Some of Matoaca’s own students have already completed a one-hour credit class in Architectural Desktop from John Tyler.

“[Students interested in] plenty of math, engineering, or architect work at all should take this,” said Mr. Jones.

This class, he went on to say, can set you up big time for the future. His own son is graduating high school with an associates degree already in a related field just from taking and getting very involved with the programs such as the ones available here at Matoaca.

In the long run, these three classes are often over looked or not even taken into account by many students at MHS when really they can be some of the most beneficial classes to take in correlation to preparing for a specified future career plan.

Congratulations to Mr. Jones and all of his students on a year well done and an awesome expose!

List of Students Involved with Projects

Advanced AutoCAD: 6,000 square foot Home Design

Robert Macreading

Whitney McDaniel

Austin Munden

Aaron Sadler

Ryan Page

Madison Picardat

Austin Taylor

Billy Whitmore

Architectural AutoCAD: 4,000 square foot Home Design

Kendall Allen

Brandon Hayzlett

Cassie Ivey

Josh Lemmert

Michael Newton

Brandon Porter

Charles Stocks

Nathan Waguespack

Bill Wilkins

Steven Oldham

Matt Brigatti

Virgil Cioflec

Ben Demery

Brad Gerner

Jarad Golob

Isaiah Gonzalez

Steven Landon

Darek McCauley

Devita McCullough

Andy Morrisette

Jonathan Tucker

Engineering AutoCAD: Steam Boats, Bridges, Tower Cranes

Ben Bansbach

Corey Bullock

Eric Dabney

Sage Fernandez

Brandon Hayzlett

Josh Moore

Michael Newton

Ryan Page

Brandon Porter

Austin Taylor

David Wellman