Due to the recent renovations, Air Academy has been transformed from the inside out. Several rooms and departments have undergone or are in the process of being redesigned to better serve the students and to improve the overall learning atmosphere. The engineering section of the school, rooms 406 a & b in lower D building, have been drastically redone. Each renovation was intentionally designed to better the atmosphere and create space for fun, interactive projects. 

The engineering corner is a series of interconnected classrooms, labs and workshops in lower D building. Last school year, it shared some of its space with the digital media classroom. Due to the renovations, the digital media class has been moved to another room in lower D building, giving the engineering team an entire classroom to fill.

Engineering teachers Jason Buhler and Tiffany Haley decided to turn their newly acquired room into a workshop for “anything that generates sawdust.” Different types of saws and lathes will line the walls while new pieces of effective furniture will be strategically placed around the room. Buhler, who has actually turned the constructing of the new room into a project for the senior engineering design and development class said,

“We have the seniors who are designing and building the workbenches and tables and stuff that will be going into the new work space.”  

Senior Evan Carter is part of the class that is designing the furniture. Carter said, “We had to learn how to present ideas to Buhler, and get all the supplies, helping put it all together.”

The class is not only learning engineering principles, but life lessons that can prepare them for future jobs in the field. This workshop is already being integrated into classes for this year, seeing as the furniture should be done in less than a week. Carter is excited to see the benefits of his work, saying, “You design it, you get to build it and you see the benefits right away.”

With some of the heavy equipment moved out of the previous lab and into the new one, the old lab is now being transformed into a “hyper lab,” as Carter likes to call it. This space is going to have any machinery that cannot be affected by sawdust. This shop will have two 3-D printers, one of which was purchased just this past summer. This lab will be used in classes to come, and will inevitably provide more hands-on activities for students.      

The renovation did not end with the workshops, however. Haley’s classroom was entirely redone. Previously, the digital media kids had to walk through her classroom to get to their lab, and the walls were thin enough to hear everything going on in that classroom. Now that they have been moved, Haley said she appreciates the “elimination of foot traffic in [her] room.”

Also due to the renovation, Haley has enjoyed the new “flexible work spaces and independent computer stations” that have been provided for her students. The new room features walls lined with more than 30 computers and several large tables in the middle of the floor for students to collaborate.

Haley also loves the cloud ceiling that was installed. She said, “It provides an inviting atmosphere for students and makes it easier for [her] to talk to the entire class without having to yell.”

The engineering program is an integral part of AAHS. These new renovations will help the classes explore areas of the field that they would never get the chance to do in any other high school. Everything done in the engineering rooms is intentional and beneficial to the students and teachers, and the work accomplished in there will benefit students for years to come.