NICE Program Benefits Education and Construction Industry

by Matt Ehrhorn

Middle school students present their projects at the 7th Annual Design-Build Competition at Union Station.

In recent years, the construction industry has seen a steady decline in its labor force. Considering that the United States economy relies in no small part on this industry, the decline represents a substantial financial problem that only could get worse for the economy in coming years. Most K-12 schools have not been doing enough to address this problem. Skilled construction crafts generally are not taught in schools, and proficiency levels in areas of math and science have been declining for years.

Thankfully, solutions to this growing problem already are in place. One is the National Foundation and Institute for Construction Excellence (NICE). Established seven years ago at Central Missouri State University, NICE is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization that was developed out of a partnership between universities and members of the construction industry. Its purpose is to implement a nationwide, K-12 program that brings construction and engineering education into the mainstream classroom, rather than relegating it to vocational classes.

Gary Kemp, executive director of the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, serves on NICE’s board of directors. “From the scaffold to the boardroom,” Kemp says, quoting the institute’s vision statement, “NICE gives young people exposure to the construction industry” and “educates and meets the needs of the construction industry.”

NICE held its 7th Annual Middle School Design-Build Competition, or “From Crayons to CAD,” February 28 through March 2 at Union Station. The competition, sponsored by universities and construction and engineering contractors such as Black & Veatch, Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, and DST Systems, gave middle school students representing 60 schools the opportunity to apply practical procedures and construction projects in areas of math, science, English and technology education. This year’s project category was heavy highway, but the program rotates each year to include residential, commercial and industrial construction projects.

In its first year, the Design-Build competition drew 64 students. Today, the program operates in eight states, and the total number of students is up to 35,000. In fact, due to space restrictions, this year’s regional competition had to be limited to 2,500 students. Most impressively, girls and boys have won an equal share of the awards in the program’s seven-year existence. In the past two years, both Missouri Governor Bob Holden and the Construction Users Roundtable have recognized the “From Crayons to CAD” program as one of the best practices in education and workforce development in the state of Missouri.

NICE founder, Dr. Janet Paulson-Smith, is an assistant professor of Construction Management at East Carolina University, where NICE currently is headquartered. Since the program’s inception in 1998, she has had the opportunity to watch it grow and to watch students apply their knowledge to actual, functional projects. “It’s exciting for kids to see how relevant their studies become,” she says, “and for them to recognize they can have a productive place to be once they graduate from high school.”

Craig Wright, Vice President of Construction at Black & Veatch, has served on NICE’s board of directors for three years and credits the Design-Build competition as a perfect means of erasing the stigmas of working in the construction industry. Once children grow out of Bob the Builder, Wright says, “construction is not a good word to say around the house.” But, he has witnessed how NICE and “From Crayons to CAD” have helped to “change the image of construction” and “get kids excited about math and science through practical application.”

He says a desired goal of the program is to achieve an equal level of comprehension and application. “If kids actually can understand what they’re doing,” Wright says, “it can capture their imagination for math and science.”