By Brittany Greer

For The Observer

Applying classroom lessons to solve real-life problems has become a specialty of Northwest Mississippi Community College’s civil technology instructor Tommy Watson, who recently reorganized a church cemetery with his students.

Sophomores in Watson’s civil technology survey lab traveled to Macedonia Baptist Church in Warsaw, Miss., twice during September to design a new grid system for the church cemetery, according to Watson.

The purpose of the project was to line up the existing graves and to create a recording system so the church could have more room for future purposes, Watson said.

“This project was very beneficial because it will allow the church to get better use out of the cemetery’s existing space, allowing future families to be buried without having to be split up,” he said.

The cemetery—like most other small church cemeteries—has only one caretaker who knows where graves exist, according to Watson.

“There were some graves that were unmarked that we had to mark,” Watson said. “The church will now have a printed map of the cemetery for future reference.”

The first step of the project was to survey the cemetery and collect initial data, Watson said. The information was then downloaded in the lab. The students worked up best-fit scenarios and graphed out the best way for the graves to lay.

“Had we not done this, at the rate and method the church was putting in graves, they would have had only 250 available graves,” Watson noted. “With our new system they can now put in 530 graves.”

The most challenging aspect about the project was the original layout of the cemetery, according to Watson.

“The graves were not lined up,” he explained. “Some graves that were out of line took up two spots. We had to void out 20-to-25 spots because of overlapping.”

The final project was presented to the church during its Homecoming on Sept. 27.

Another similar project for Watson and his students was the mapping of historic Spring Hill Cemetery in Hernando for archeological purposes. The class did a complete survey and artifact identification, Watson said.

“We identified every grave marker, tree, fence, etc.,” he recalled. “The purpose of the project was to try and get the cemetery registered on the National Register of Historic Places.”

For more information on the civil technology program or the drafting and design technology program at Northwest, call the career-technical dean’s office on the Senatobia campus at (662) 562-3361.