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Walk down a hallway of Mount Airy Middle School and visitors might encounter some interesting looking doors, decorated with crests and animals.
In fact, the end wing of the school looks downright medieval.
The project, initiated by math teacher Larry Henning, involved reading and language arts, social studies and science as well, said Cheryl Rule, a reading and language arts teacher participating in the first-year project.
Although not a part of the large project, in science class, students also created their own catapults and tried them out. "That was a fun thing too," Rule said.
"They've really gotten into it," she said about the students.
To cap the lessons, students visited Medieval Times, a Hanover dinner theater featuring a medieval tournament with jousting knights and live horses, on Friday.
About 122 students are involved in the project, social studies teacher Ellen Kartisek said.
In Kartisek's class, students were asked to create a model of a Mount Airy Recreation Center with a special twist. It had to look like a medieval castle.
"The whole inside was about a recreation center and the outside had to be a castle," said student Brandon Quinn.
The castles were drawn to scale with help of Henning, who had math students research the size of sports courts, parking spots, and walls, then put them to the correct sizes.
"The trees are even to scale," said student Matt Kraeger, pointing to tiny evergreens spotting the lawn of his group's castle recreation center. The open-topped building was surrounded by a moat and accessed with a functioning drawbridge, demonstrated by student Kelli Rubin, who drew it up by a string.
The trees were to represent 15-foot-high pines in real life, said seventh-grader Julie Esworthy.
Another group crowding around their castle said they had gone on the Internet for measurements of the courts that spotted their project: soccer, tennis and even Little League and Major League-sized baseball fields. Their moat offered white water rafting as an exercise option.
The project took about three weeks said student K.C. Stipcak, touching one of the castle's double layered walls.
The group said the project was a huge assignment, worth a large amount of points for the classes.
"Every class prepared us," said student Caroline Cochran, adding they had read excerpts of MacBeth as part of a drama unit in a different class.
The group said they had seen a preview of Medieval Times and were excited at the opportunity to eat with their hands.
Seventh-grader Evan Lobis said his group had to gather their own supplies and work on the castle outside of class.
Their recreation center was complete with a ski lift, a glittering pool, and courts for hockey and jousting. Real moss edged the "outside" of the building named "King Richard Recreation Center."
The castle, made of Popsicle sticks, was covered in grey paint mixed with sand to add texture, compliments of group member LeeAnn Summerlin.
The students said the project was fun, although "it was really stressful at first," said Leah Corio.
Each project required certain elements like a basketball court, track, boiler room, parking, stairs and offices. Twenty points were awarded to extra ideas, such as white water rafting and the ski lift.
Kasinski laughed as she graded, touching the castle surrounded by trees of pine needles.
"It's a little sticky," she said. The group eagerly explained their project to the teacher as she marked on the grading scale.
"You guys did a great job," she said, getting up to move on to the next group.
This past week, students presented their recreation center to the three teachers involved with the project, trying to obtain a "contract" for their model of the castle.
"I didn't think they'd get so much into the persuasive part of it," Rule said. "I saw some celebrity endorsements today, and I thought ‘Oh, that's good, they listened.'"
She said students used the bandwagon technique also, and she was excited to see students using what they had learned in class.
