Students build a playground for a Costa Rican community
Seven Virginia Tech students and their professor travel to Costa Rica to take part in a service-learning trip, seeing a semester-long project come to life.
On a rainy April day, a group of Virginia Tech students outside their Bishop-Favrao Hall classroom used rudimentary math calculations and traditional survey techniques to envision a playground that would bring joy to primary school students in a Costa Rican community 3,500 miles away.
From classrooms filled with new technologies and cutting-edge research tools, these students were learning how to keep things simple — a lesson Charles Smith knew would serve them well on their service-learning trip abroad to the small community of Cimarrón.
"One of the best parts about this service-learning experience is that students can walk through a new way of thinking,” said Smith, assistant professor of practice in construction engineering and management. “With only a suitcase of tools that we bring to another country, we have to get creative in how we do things.”
Smith, in his second year leading the program abroad, thrives in these teaching moments. His semester-long course is designed not only to teach students something new about applying fundamental engineering skills but also about the tangible impact their skill sets can leave behind.
"Last year, our students renovated a community center in Costa Rica, and the impact was immediately felt, but I wasn’t convinced a playground would have the same effect,” said Smith, who partners with the nonprofit Peacework to find community projects around the world. “As I did more research, I learned about the importance this kind of interaction has on young children including human-on-human development, calculated risks, and dealing with challenges, all while in a controlled environment."
Upon recognizing the opportunity that creating a space for play could have on the community, Smith started planning. Under his guidance, no stone was left unturned.
"My first day, I walked into the classroom, and it was a conference room-style table. I knew this wasn’t going to be a traditional class. Everyone was able to voice their thoughts and talk through ideas,” said Brady Peterson, a construction engineering and management student.
There were seven students from three majors in the class who each brought a different perspective to the table.
The group talked through the pros and cons of each step of the process: the pieces of equipment selected, safety concerns, space requirements, cost, ease of installation, and most importantly, a company that could create the playground components. Together, the students elected to use in-country playground manufacturer Eureca Urban and Recreational Equipment to produce and watch over the installation of the equipment.
“This course is designed to be more open-ended than a traditional course setting. Our students begin to learn that nothing just happens,” said Smith, who spent 35 years in the civil engineering and the construction industry before joining the Myers-Lawson School of Construction. “I don't take them through every step. I let them sweat it.”
Service learning in action
In mid-May, after nearly every detail of the service learning trip had been thought out, the students packed their bags, grabbed their passports, and boarded a plane to Cimarrón to see their vision come to life.
After sleeping off the 16-hour travel day, the students sat in a white passenger van winding through the Costa Rican mountains filled with breathtaking views, vibrant vegetation, and familiar livestock. An hour later, the students finally saw the site they had spent the last five months talking about, planning for, and imagining.
Students plan out playground equipment layout using practical exercises from their classroom time in Blacksburg. Photo by Ashley Williamson for Virginia Tech.
Students learn rudimentary math calculations used for surveying during Blacksburg class time. Photo by Connor Hetman for Virginia Tech.
Within minutes of arriving at the site, Arianna Rocco, a construction engineering and management student, and Hunter Frenzke, a civil and environmental engineering student, began using the rudimentary math and trigonometry they worked on in Blacksburg to assist with the survey layout of the playground equipment at the Costa Rican school.
Working in teams over several days, the students determined the best position for the playground, dug holes for foundations, hand-mixed and placed concrete to anchor the supports into the ground, and installed the finishing touches in an area where there was just grass days before.
“This is the first time I've written something out on a piece of paper months ago and now it's coming into action,” said Ben Miller, a construction engineering and management major.
Once the playground was up and local children were eager to test the new space out, the students’ focus turned to incorporating more community members into the project. While the intricacies of the design and construction process were a result of what students learned throughout the semester, they also learned the importance of collaborating with the primary school community.
Mollie McKee, an industrial and systems engineering major, led the effort to incorporate Costa Rican culture through art with a vision of including each child’s handprint into a mural. She and the other engineers traced and painted a floral landscape on the side of the school that faces the new playground.
“On one of our off days, we toured a botanical garden in a nearby city which gave me inspiration for some of the designs,” said McKee. “One by one we traced each student’s hand to act as a leaf on the flowers.”
In a little more than a week, the Virginia Tech team, Eureca Urban and Recreational Equipment, and Peacework had turned the unused schoolyard into a new favorite place for the children who call this community home. To celebrate the joint achievement, the school and its young students went all out — a dedicated song, theatre performance, dance, games, and even a plaque to celebrate the playground’s completion.
Eyram Awittor-Awuma, a construction engineering and management student, understood the importance of this service work first-hand. Growing up in Ghana, her first access to a playground was in middle school.
“I got to think about what I would have wanted as a kid in that space,” said Awittor-Awuma.
With another successful trip under his belt, Smith is already looking ahead to next year and the new set of challenges and opportunities the service-learning trip will provide — this time in Peru. He and Peacework will be traveling with students to a potato park to build welcome signs, which is an important cultural and economic driver for the local community. But the trip wouldn’t be possible without generous financial support from those who understand the benefit of investing in hands-on learning opportunities.
On top of students’ efforts to raise money, funding for this year’s trip to Costa Rica – to make the playground equipment, painting supplies, and more – was provided by the Robert H. and Janice G. Wells Outreach and Engagement Endowment. Additionally, challenge funds received from Giving Day and Myers-Lawson’s successful participation numbers earned the school $25,000 to make this experience possible.
As for the best part of the project?
“There's nothing more exciting than when you see happy kids running around on a playground,” said Jimi Wood, a construction engineering and management student who has two children of his own. “Your heart can't feel any bigger than it does after experiencing how excited they were. It was everything that I wanted out of this trip.”
