When faced with an accounting problem, teacher Kena Pierce turned to what she knows best to solve it — engineering.

Pierce, and all other club sponsors, were told at a meeting this August that they would no longer be able to be reimbursed for purchases they made without first seeking an approval for exactly what they intended to order beforehand.

“Even with the new rules from the bookkeeper, we were going to use the 3D modeling anyways,” Pierce said.

Just like the construction of a building or any other type of architecture, a three-dimensional model is a helpful tool to figure out how much material is needed to build a structure. The same is true for the sculpture of canned goods that the

Akins CANstruction group planned to make in the annual competition held at Barton Creek Mall in November.

“It makes it easier as long as you know how to use the software,” Pierce said. “We’ve been using Sketchup this year.”

Pierce couldn’t do it without her students, who help and are the ones who are designing the 3-D model. Senior Crystal Mendieta, CANstruction secretary, believes that using the modeling this year will be very beneficial to the organization.

“3-D modeling does affect us in a positive way because it is an efficient and accurate way for us to depict our vision,” Mendieta said. “It gives us an amazing representation of what we will be trying to achieve and it serves as a dependable “blueprint” for our structure.”

Senior Julia Jackola, said when the design team first started using the software, they faced some technical difficulties.

“It was really difficult at first and it took us a little while to get the hang of it, but once you got the hang of it, it ended up being a breeze,” Jackola said. CANstruction used to only do the 2-D
model, but not that they’re doing the 3-D model the building process will be a lot easier for them.

“The 3-D modeling helps immensely, when it comes to build day it’s going to make it so much easier for us versus hav- ing a 2-D model and having to think about how it’s going to look when you build it,” Jackola said.

This is the third year that Akins has participated in the Austin CANstruction competition, which will be held at Barton Creek Square Mall on Nov. 14. Akins is one of the only high schools that participates in the event. Most of other teams are sponsored by area colleges.

In the past, Akins has designed the MockingJay movie logo and Keep Austin Fed T-shirt logo. This year, the team is planning on making a giant Turkey.

When the competition is over with, the canned goods will be donated to the Capitol Area Food Bank. Members said they like that the project is fun and helps those in need in their community.