Due to COVID-19, our school administration, staff and students were concerned about the ability to have a football season with fans and spectators present. The school district sold season passes to fans and spectators, but had no idea how to ensure that parties would be separated according to ADH and CDC guidelines. They also wanted to fit the maximum number of fans in the stadium without breaking any directives. We were presented with this problem on Thursday morning, September 3rd and had a deadline by Friday, September 4th end of day.
This project took one and a half days and every single EAST student participated. A small class of 4 students were the project managers, they set up the initial plan for the project using Google Earth and researched ADH, AAA and CDC guidelines for outdoor event seating. One student in each class was the designated communications director - their job was to relay direction, communication, instructions and assign jobs to the next class as we were working on a deadline. EAST students spent half a day measuring, surveying, taping down assigned seats, and creating a layout of the stadium; they even helped pick up trash in the stadium while they were working! Back in the classroom, the students tried out several softwares and websites to create their seating chart and decided Canva would be the best fit for this project, especially since it would be handed off to another class multiple times before completion. Another student in each class was elected as the format director to ensure all separate sections of the stadium were being mapped in the same format. Once they created their rough draft, they went back to the stadium to make sure seating was done to-scale with bleacher rows and that all season ticket holders had an assigned space. They even left enough room for physically distant student seating and single-game ticket seating. Once all sections of the stadium were virtually mapped out and assigned seats were placed, the students delivered the finished project to the Athletic Director, Building Administrators, and the Superintendent; all of whom agreed we were in compliance of guidelines and regulations.