Go! logo over a recently completed concrete overlay

April–May 2008

exploring the world of transportation

School spotlight:

A concrete education

by Michele Regenold

2 male high school students work on smoothing out a large square of wet concrete
Students in an industrial technology class level off a 6-foot by 6-foot square of concrete.

Student uses a trowel to smooth out a square of wet concrete
A student smooths the concrete with a trowel.
Photos courtesy of Richard Evans.

Not sure why you need to read Romeo and Juliet, understand how to figure out the square root of 52, or memorize elements in the periodic table? Maybe it’s time to check out your high school’s industrial technology classes.

Industrial technology classes cover a wide range of real-world technologies like energy and power, engineering, construction and manufacturing, and electricity/electronics. In these classes, the emphasis is usually on hands-on learning. This can be a nice balance with classes that may not seem as practical (but are still important in the long term).

For example, students in Richard Evans’s industrial arts classes in Mason City, Iowa, get their hands dirty learning about concrete. To learn about flat work like driveways, sidewalks, and patios, they pour 2 6-foot by 6-foot squares. They finish one square with a traditional broom finish. This gives the surface a slightly rougher texture that’s often used on sidewalks.

For another square, they stain and stamp the concrete. This kind of decorative concrete work is used in projects like city crosswalks. A specially stained and textured section of a pavement is made to look like brick or cobblestones. This helps it stand out visually as a crosswalk, and for non-sighted pedestrians, the feel of it helps them tell where the crosswalk is.

As a class project, Evans guides his students in constructing a garden bench out of concrete. Evans says this project shows how “to get concrete to do what you want it to do.” The students also build their own forms for the bench (forms are the molds that force concrete into the desired shape). When the bench is ready, the students usually raffle it. One year they decorated it as a memorial to a student who had died and gave it to his parents.

Get a concrete curriculum for your school

If this sounds fun but your industrial tech classes don’t offer any projects in concrete, you could suggest to your teacher that he or she get in touch with Jerry Woods at the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association (IRMCA; see contact info below). He can provide a concrete curriculum that’s freely available to schools (at least those in Iowa). It was developed by the IRMCA, the Iowa Concrete Paving Association, and the Iowa Department of Education.

The curriculum includes several modules:

  • Career options in concrete
  • Ready-mixed plant tour (field trip)
  • Concrete design and proportions
  • Prepour checklist
  • Decorative concrete
  • Finishing concrete
  • Concrete industry career expo

Several good videos are included too. Evans, who used the curriculum step by step for the first time this year (except for the field trip), says it gives kids a sense of what the industry is about.

Contact information for concrete curriculum

Jerry Woods, Director of Training/Outreach
Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association
380 SE Delaware Ave
Ankeny, IA 50021
Cell: 515-689-8746
Office: 515-965-4575
irmca@iowareadymix.org (mark to the attention of Jerry Woods)

Michele Regenold is the editor of Go!.