UShaka Island Visit

Mrs. McDade recently took eighteen Grade 11 Technical Drawing pupils on a tour of Durban's uShaka Island development. The first stop was the design and project office, where the projects plans and developments were shown to the boys. This was a great learning experience for the boys as they finally got to see AutoCAD in a real project situation.

They were shown how the flat 2D plans were then recreated into scaled models covering different aspects of this project. For example, each marine tank and rock face in the new Sea World area has to be modelled first so that the builders and artists can compare what the finished design should look like.

They then went to the art department where all the finishes for the theme of uShaka were there for us to view. This was very interesting and again the boys could see how a plan is read and implemented from construction to the finished product.

There was also had a talk on the research and educational aspects the this exciting development. The purpose of this development is not only for fun. The marine research and rehabilitation aspects to this project are awesome. Following this all were issued with hard hats and the guide explained to the boys the safety rules when on a construction site.

In the ensuing tour the boys could finally see the "big picture" from those very necessary and detail intensive plans. The construction was unbelievable and proved to be a great learning experience for them.