Construction Studies Project - Need help deciding

RallyMad95

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently in 5th year and trying to decide on my Construction Studies for my Leaving Cert. I'm not bad at the subject, I liked making my Junior Cert Project. My teacher reckons I should a model of a stairs but when I asked the other woodwork teacher in the school about it, he thinks its a bad idea as models are just too much work for the marks that are there. What do you guys think? Really not sure what to do, model or make something. Just want to get sorted now and started.

Thanks!

eggman794

Well if you could make a decent model of a stairs you could get high marks. Last year i made a model house with a stairs and got an A2 so..

LostBoy101

I'm not sure if I can be much of a help, I'm sitting my LC in 2013 and for my project I'm making a chess board with a press and circular stand attached to it. For the construction of the press I used dovetail joints for the attachment for the board which was pretty difficult as I've never done them before! but my teacher told me that if I do less machine work the better my marks will be. I'm currently have the first part assembled and will start working on the press.

To get a couple of ideas in your head, do you need any small furtinture to improve your house? like a coffee table?, shelving unit?, etc.. You can do combinations of materials (i.e. Ash and Mahongy) on a single furtinture if you are interested in something like that.

Note: If you made a mistake, don't worry, you can state it in your portfolio in your analyse section and you gain marks (you can also modify the mistake and show them how you did it).

Hope I helped a little bit and feel free to ask any more questions.

J_E

You'll definitely stand out if you make something different. If a lot of class are making pieces of furniture you could do well doing a heritage study or a scaled model of a construction feature. Ask your teacher about your options and they should be able to help you.

seavill

As a teacher my advice to my class is always to make sure whatever you do it is something that you are actually interested in. It is a long couple of months if its something you don't care about.

Don't listen to either of the teachers, think of what you would like to make yourself and go with that.

Are you interested in a particular part of the course like solar or passive design. Maybe a model of roofs or stairs or floors/foundations etc. Maybe a piece of furniture that you can bring home afterwards.

If its something you like you will end up with more marks.

As for the thing of doing something different this is a myth as far as I am concerned. Yes the chief examiner puts out the idea that they would like a mix of projects and things that cover the entire course however if 24 coffee tables are made in your class of 24 people cannot be marked down because the other 23 also made coffee tables.
You will get graded for the work you do good or bad.