I was invited to make some things for the Deeper Learning Conference this year, and it gave me a chance to try out some things I'd been meaning to experiment with for future projects.

The Illuminated Signs

These signs were a big learning experience for me in using the CNC machine that we've got in the shop. From a teacher stand point, this is a cool way to get students using Adobe Illustrator, electronics, and CNC manufacturing. 

In the future I may do a write up on how these are made, but for now I will say that this project would need some changes in order to work as a school project. If a whole class was making these, it would be better if they didn't need the CNC machine for the whole project and could construct parts of it with more traditional methods. 

The Seating

I built these benches to serve as centerpiece furniture for the Q/A sessions during DL2019. I used this as an opportunity to prototype a project idea for furniture that can change.

My big take away from building these is the value of CAD. These were designed using Fusion 360, which allowed prototyping and experimenting without using materials. Usually I would make a new design out of scraps and figure out the dimensions from that, but with Fusion 360 I could make many more prototypes and tweak my design to be accurate. 

Thinking about the end result, if I were to use this as a project in class, I would want all of my students to design their furniture in Fusion 360. That's a lot of skill building and scaffolding, but the value is huge.