Melbourne canstruction is underway down under! Our project involves Primary (Elementary) and Secondary (High) School students in the Outer Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne from the Knox Northwest Cluster of Schools working in teams to design and build amazing canstructions. Each team has selected a country participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and their task is to design a building, monument or representation of that country. Our incredible students are being supervised by engineering students from Monash University and professional engineers from the company GASCO. The teams are moving through a process of designing paper drawn models, followed by 3D computer animations then on to scale models and finally the real thing. The canstruction building will take place from 14th - 16th October 2008 with all cans of food being donated to Salvation Army Foodbanks. The Knox Northwest Cluster of Schools listed below is thrilled to be involved in this concept and we look forward to sharing our journey with the world. Boronia West Primary School: http://www.boroniawestps.vic.edu.au/ Bayswater Primary School: http://www.bayswaterps.vic.edu.au/ Bayswater West Primary School: http://www.baywestps.vic.edu.au/ Wantirna Primary School: http://wantirnaprimary.vic.edu.au/ Bayswater Secondary College: http://www.bayswatersc.vic.edu.au/bwsc/index.php  STAGE 1: •Student teams of 8-10 will form and will be allocated a country participating in the Olympics via the website. •Each team will then research and select a famous monument, building or representation of the designated country.  •Student teams will be allocated a professional engineer and begin creating 2 Dimensional drawings of their selected building, monument or country representation. STAGE 2 : •Student teams will be trained to use 3D modelling and animation software.  •Student Teams with their professional engineer will create a 3D virtual representation of their selected building or monument. •Teams will begin collecting cans of food for their canstruction© model. STAGE 3: •Student teams and their professional engineer will create a scale model of their Building, Monument or Country Representation. •A student animation team will capture and edit all aspects of the canstruction© project.   •Digital photographs of maths in action to be taken by students. STAGE 4: •A 3-day competition to create and build full size canstruction© models. •Judging of winners by esteemed panel. •GALA EVENT to announce winning canstruction© models and winners of Lantern animation film festival for mathematics. •Digital photographs of winning models to be sent to the USA for international judging.             PROJECT PARTNERS •Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development– Innovation & Next Practice •Salvation Army Food Bank Doveton - All cans collected and used during the project will be donated to the Salvos to support those in need. •Gasco – Engineers from Gasco will teach students during the project. •Monash University – Monash University Engineering Students will support teams to design and build. •Play Animation – www.playanimation.com.au •Can supplier- To be announced. •More Project Partners to be announced