By Hannah Tardie
In late July and early August, the Makerspace piloted a Pre-College course called Green Design Lab: 3D Printing and Sustainable Making. Over the course of the two week course, high school students 3D printed, laser cut, prototyped electronics, and soldered while learning about sustainable approaches to digital fabrication. This post highlights a few projects from the curriculum that the Green Design Lab students completed during their time in Pre-College.
Week 1
During the first week, students were tasked with making notebooks, putting together wood birdhouses, learning a bit of Adobe Illustrator, putting together solar-powered circuit kits, learning to 3D model in TinkerCAD, and 3D printing. In the beginning of the week, students made custom notebooks with covers made out of leftover book covers from the LCDSS Sci-Fi Digitization project.
Students used these notebooks throughout the program to complete their homework assignments. In the following days, they learned how to use Adobe Illustrator to create files suitable for laser cutting. They were able to create custom artwork for laser engraving on the wooden birdhouses and then painted them.
On the last two days of the first week, students explored solar powered circuits. They soldered a solar powered LED kit, and started building Solar Power synth kits from local bookstore, Iffy Books.
Week 2
Students came to week 2 with reflections on sustainable communities and different leaves from an assigned nature walk around campus.
In the beginning of the week they finished up their solar powered synth kits, and took a field trip to the Office of Sustainability’s community garden.
On the last few days of class, students put together solar-powered bug kits and designed and lasercut cardboard racetracks for their bugs to race.
Students left the Pre-College program with skills in soldering, putting together electronic circuits, 3D printing, and laser cutting. The course encouraged students to think carefully about design choices such as materials used, design longevity, and community impact and benefit.