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Chelsea Ofori, sophomore, is designing a keychain for a customer. The customer, her class partner, has given her a tough set of specs – a combination dog, hockey puck, hockey stick. By the end of the week, she’ll hold the design she creates on the computer in her hands, fresh from the 3D printer.

At Spring Lake Park High School, students like Chelsea are learning through real-world application. They are making machines to test the concepts of physics. They are creating infographics to teach other students about research concepts aligned to English Language Arts. They are exploring engineering design and technology to earn college credits.

These learning experiences are about more than ticking off graduation requirements. The chance to apply often abstract concepts to real life situations leads to deeper learning. It also helps students test out potential career and college paths.

Creating to learn

The keychain project, “Charmed, I’m sure,” is part of Karen Kutz’s Intro to Engineering course. The project combines design, technology and critical interpersonal skills.

Students are asked to imagine that they are a design company whose goal is to use 3D printing technology to quickly manufacture and deliver customized products to their customers. Their job is to test the process. 

Customers are randomly assigned classroom pairs. Each student must deliver a description of their customer (partner), sketches, a computer-created multi-dimensional drawing and a 3D-printed product. The students learn the concepts and vocabulary. Then, they create.

“I see the difference in students when they reach that point where they have to collaborate more with their classmates and are given more freedom to choose what they create and have control over it,” says Karen. “Their energy level goes way up.”

For Karen, it’s fun to see students collaborating with people they may not typically interact with. They sit down together and talk to each other when they have a purpose in connecting. 

“I had to work with my client to understand their interests,” says junior Ebbako Gaga. “I have communicated with them throughout the whole process so we could decide what I would make them, the shape, the colors, everything about the final product.”

The final step is presenting the product to the customer. The keychains are just the latest products from the 3D printer. Students have designed and printed everything from chess sets to a mini fridge (with working hinge) to a Minecraft cube and dancing figures. No wonder Karen is a recent recipient of the Onshape Educator Award for 3D printing.

Making the abstract real

For high school math teacher Sophia Paredes, making abstract concepts and ideas real for students is important.

“At the high school level, we often get away from concrete representations like you may see in the younger grades,” says Sophia. “It makes everything more abstract. High school students see the definition and hear the explanation but don’t always get to see how things work really.”

In her Principles of Engineering class, students do a lot of hands-on work.  

“Part of the engineering design process is designing, prototyping and testing,” says Sophia. “They engage in that process a few times each trimester to actually build something and apply the physics concepts they've learned.”  

The final class project is to build a Rube Goldberg-type machine. It’s a way to make the topic of mechanical advantage come to life.

I have to use what I learned throughout the class to make a functional machine. I will calculate how much force it needs to counter the resistance on pulleys, levers, and gears. This will help my machine run smoothly and achieve the end goal of lifting a two pound weight. Daanish Hindustani, junior

Sophia wants to help students develop their thinking and not be so threatened by an abstract concept but to really learn it through the project.

“This class is more hands-on than any other class I’ve had,” says Daanish. “We get to actually use what we learned to build stuff. This way of teaching helped me better understand the concepts and how to utilize them.”

Learning to teach others

Connecting learning to real application is not reserved for STEM subjects. Just ask Jenn Prince who teaches English Language Arts. Students in her Advanced Placement Language Arts class created infographics to educate incoming 9^th graders on digital information and research – topics they need to understand and apply in high school.

Students took the information, analyzed infographics to determine the best approach for presenting the key ideas and then created an infographic to communicate with other students.

“They really needed to think about this through the eyes of an 8^th grader,” says Jenn. “They were learning the subject itself and also how to change the delivery of the information given the audience.”

The process included rounds of feedback to enhance their product – and lots of revision. 

“This assignment was a great way to attain information as the creators,” says junior Ridwaan Osman. “It was really interesting knowing that others would be using our projects as learning tools. Although this project wasn’t meant for ‘me,’ it also taught me many things that I hadn’t known before or forgotten.”

Deeper learning

Creating learning experiences like this – that are hands-on and connect academic concepts to real world application – while not always easy to set up or facilitate, leads to deeper learning.

“Honestly, this is so much more work and takes up so much more time than just telling them [students] and showing them,” says Sophia. “I can tell them about concepts and relationships but having them actually build machines, see the relationships and record what they are seeing to get to the learning . . . it takes time, but it gives them a better understanding.”

While setting up projects like these is an investment, the teaching role changes when the project has begun.

“It depends on the day and what the target is that day,” says Jenn. “Sometimes I'm giving content and I'm the expert, sometimes I'm coaching, sometimes I'm asking them to give feedback to each other. As a teacher, I have to be okay with not always knowing.”

The transition from a more teacher-centered approach to a more student-centered approach can be uncomfortable. On the best days, the payoff is seeing students deeply engaged.

Some of Karen’s students have figured out things in the software far beyond what was covered in class because they are invested in their project. They’ve reached a place of authentic engagement and they are volunteering their time and attention and that’s the goal – deeper learning and preparation for life after SLP.

“At the end, I hope students know if they like this discipline and want to continue to explore, they can do so,” says Karen. “I want them to leave better problem solvers with the ability to think through a problem systematically and use the design process beyond the classroom. I also want them to be collaborators and know how to show up in teams. Life is not a solo sport.”