To Adrian Newman and his three classmates at the Center for Applied Technology South in Edgewater, the three giant, free-form stars they are building are about angle cuts, point locations, blueprints and credits toward high school graduation.
But to the promoters of First Night, the New Year's Eve celebration of the arts, it could become an Annapolis tradition.
First Night organizers want holiday revelers to write their hopes for the New Year on the 6-foot tall stars, which will hang over the City Dock while the performances are going on all over the city.
The project will be re-installed and added to each year by students, so that by the year 2000 an entire arch of stars will hang over Annapolis Harbor, said Elizabeth Welch, a First Night director.
Of course, Mr. Newman hasn't missed the significance of the project, either.
"We're doing something millions of people are going to see," said the 18-year-old South River High School student who has spent the last two months sawing, hammering and bolting planks together.
And Lynn Gohman, the Annapolis artist who designed the project and drafted the sketches, talks about it in cosmic terms.
"It's a communal experience," she said. "Rather than just writing 'I will lose 20 pounds by April,' I would like to think people are thinking in grander schemes, about world peace. It will be a telling device about people in general."
This year marks the fifth First Night celebration in Annapolis, and it will include magicians, mimes, comedians and musicians performing on the streets and in downtown buildings. It is expected to draw 10,000 people to Annapolis from cities up and down the East Coast.
The stars, which First Night organizers have dubbed "resolution art," will be on display through midnight.
And while First Night organizers and the artist speak of community and traditions, Bob Sampson, the CAT-South building construction teacher supervising the project, talks in terms of the basic elements of construction.
"This is not quite how a house is put together, but all the principles are the same," he said, pointing to an up-ended star lying on the floor of the school's carpentry shop.
The four students at work on the project hope to become carpenters or masons, he said, adding that to get those jobs they must first master the art of fine edges and angles. "This way," he said, "they're practicing exactly what they're learning."
Meanwhile, the students are eager to see the finished products and will work every afternoon for the next two weeks to complete the stars.
"It's better being out here than sitting in a classroom," said Adrian Newman, the high school senior. "And it's something new for the city of Annapolis. That's what makes me really like it."