Mr. Jordan Downing’s Mechanical Drafting class recently had a client-oriented project where the class designed and 3D printed key chains for students in Mrs. Helle’s second-grade class. Above is a photo of the mechanical drafting students presenting the final product to the second graders.
Above are some of the final products.
And here is the 3D printer at work.
I asked Mr. Downing about his goals for the class.
In the class, my goal besides teaching them the CAD program, is to teach them different skills that will be useful in the workplace; working with others communicating, and working with clients, that was kind of the goal of this assignment. So that was a reason behind this, and applying some of the skills that they've been learning in class towards a product that we could produce.
I also asked him what's the best part of his job.
Honestly, it's a matter of at the end of the semester, what I can get kids to come up with and create, and every year, I get some projects that are typical, other times I have a handful of projects that man, I've never seen before and even kind of challenges my ability to help them because they're kind of thinking outside the box and it's always fun to see what the kids can come up with and ultimately what they can accomplish.
Here is our full interview:
I think this class project is wonderful. The high school students working with elementary school students on projects that may well help stimulate a love of design and making things for all of the students involved, as well as working on the soft skills of communication and collaboration that the modern workplace so desires.
Mrs. Lindsey Carlson teaches Language Arts at the High School. Whenever I speak with students at both the middle school and high school levels, many tell me that language arts are their favorite classes. Mrs. Carlson tells me why she thinks this may be the case.
I think the language arts department does a really good job of building relationships with kids, making them feel comfortable, making them feel welcome, and kind of stretching their thinking in both writing and reading exposing them to or re-exposing them to their love of reading…we can usually match books with kids really well and they end up kind of gobbling up the things that we suggest to them…
I think that when you can plant Little Seeds of Fascination in them, they start thinking more deeply about things and it's really fun…anything you can apply to them, they always want to talk about themselves. They always want to talk about their experiences. So we try and foster that environment where we can apply things that are like real life, but also things that matter to them...
This is just a snippet of our interview. Here is the link to hear more:
Look at how fast these middle schoolers can move!
Middle School Art teacher Kelsey Nichols puts up art in preparation for parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
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