Survey students gain hands-on experience
By: Kristina Dunigan

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Civil Technology instructor Tommy Watson and seven students had the opportunity this semester to put knowledge to work as they took on the project of reorganizing the Macedonian Baptist Church cemetery in Warsaw, Miss.

Watson, instructor for four years, was honored in taking on the job at the church in DeSoto County.  Watson and students from his Elementary Survey and Lab and Legal Principles classes were involved in the project. The whole plan of the project was to get the existing graves back in line and to create a recording system so the church could have more room for future purposes.

Students involved in Watson’s project were, (l to r)Gary Bell, Justin McClain, Nick Sosebee, Tommy Watson, Austin Hill, Tyler Miller, Chris Downs and Lance Hendrix. (Staff Photo)

“My expectations for my students are to be able to get them on the ground and take the survey equipment they have been trained on, take all the data, draw it up, and organize the project to the standards that I set for them,” said Watson.

They started their project off by doing a survey reference of different objects of the property and the perimeter of the cemetery. This gave the team an outline of what they were working with and could easily draw up a map to bring back to the lab.

Once the work was brought to the lab the students could then download the material to the computer and really start to get to work on the assignment. With a good visual representation of how the graves were lined up, they went with a best-fit scenario and graphed out the best way the graves could lay. At the rate the church was going they would have enough room for 250 graves, but Watson and his students managed to make enough room for 530.

“This not only helps the community, but also gets my guys out on the field and lets the public see what they can do,” he said.

Watson’s project, which began Sept. 1, was successfully finished on Sept. 27, three weeks after the start date.

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