ASK Academy students showcase mini-golf exhibits

RIO RANCHO — Thursday evening at The ASK Academy in Rio Rancho saw a very different parent-teacher conference.

To the delight of teachers, ASK Academy students, known as scholars, grabbed putters with their parents and played miniature golf on courses they designed and built as part of a class project. Approximately 250 people attended, raising $2,400, school officials said.

ASK scholar Brolin Liester constructed his mini-golf course with a "world tour" theme, allowing attendees to putt on the Golden Gate Bridge all the way to the Egyptian pyramids. 

 "It's the coolest option and the most affordable - because we have a budget," Liester, a seventh-grader, said.

Liester and more than 100 of his peers formed into small teams to construct mini golf courses within a $30 budget. The guidelines stem from a semester-long course known as Project Lead the Way, taught by Stephanie Davis, seventh grade PLTW teacher for The ASK Academy. The project-based learning course teaches ASK Academy scholars about leadership. This semester's focus is engineering, in which scholars use the engineering design process to design their mini-golf courses. 

"The focus is working within teams to solve real-world problems," Davis said, adding that by using miniature golf, scholars become "engaged" and "interested" in a project that they will show to the community.

Davis assigned a price to every material she had for scholars to construct their mini-golf courses — and they had to stay under $30 to get full credit for their project.

"Most did," Davis said. "They're very, very careful about how much tape they bought."

At times, she would discount the price of items for scholars who worked hard and needed extra materials to complete their projects. 

Scholars Diego Chacon and Dan Harris made a ramp and spiral out of tape and cardboard in the first part of their mini-golf course, followed by another ramp that led to the hole. The second ramp was painted red with the Air Jordan logo, an homage to the best-selling shoe bearing the name of NBA basketball legend Michael Jordan. A spinning sign with an illustration of Jordan's leg wearing his team shorts and the shoe finished off the course.

Chacon said he chose the Air Jordan theme because Jordan is famous and is "somebody kids look up to for hard work and ethics." He hoped the community who played his mini-golf course enjoyed it and appreciated how long it took to build.

Harris said he chose the Air Jordan theme, in part, because the shoes are well known and "comfy." He noticed that not all community members who played his course hit the ball softly; some sent their ball "flying," he said.

Brolin Liester said his parents putted "pretty bad" on his own course. His mother, Jennifer Liester, said it took "a lot of taps."

"I thought I was going to do better because I saw him get two holes in one," Jennifer Liester said. "I got into the water trap and couldn't seem to get out of it."

On a serious note, she said she is proud of her son putting hours of time into constructing the course.