North Broward Prepatory School
North Broward Preparatory School is an international independent, college-preparatory school in Coconut Creek, Florida, serving students from Pre-K through Grade 12. Known for its innovative approach to education, the school emphasizes academic excellence, creativity, global citizenship, and experiential learning.
As the NBPS Fab Lab Teacher, I designed and taught an interdisciplinary makerspace curriculum integrating art, design, engineering, and emerging technologies. I created hands-on learning experiences that fostered creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and collaboration.
Over the time I taught at NBPS, there were hundreds of diverse Middle School and High School student projects created. Below, I wanted to share just a few.
Honors Design Tech Projects
Making with Meaning
At NBPS, students can begin their Fab Lab Maker journey in Middle School and continue through to graduation. In High School, students are offered College Prep, Honors, and IB levels of Design Technology courses. By the time a student has reached Honors, they start to really zone in on Human Centered Design. In my Honors class, I became the Client and shared my pain- points about the organization, storage, and accessibility of even the simplest tools. Here are a couple of my favorite successful projects that have seamlessly improved user and owner experience and continue to be staples in the NBPS Fab Lab.
Cutting Edge
As with other everyday makerspace utility tools, scissors can get a bit disorganized. Since there were three communal worktables with 8 students at a table, I originally had 3 quart-size yogurt containers, 8 scissors in each container. For some mysterious reason, students liked to jam all the scissors into one container. Sometimes blades were facing up and sometimes down.
So as part of my client criteria, I asked my Honors Designer to make 3 containers that would only allow for 8 scissors to be stored individually within each of 3 modules. I also wanted an “impossible to get it wrong” approach. The interior design is angled to hold scissors only one way. The final solution continues to work perfectly!
Modular Mashup
Likewise, pencils also seem to have their own idea about how they should be stored. Once again, students could not get the hang of using the existing storage correctly. For my client criteria for this project , I requested that the Designer make 3 containers that would only allow for multiple pencils to be stored individually within each of 3 modules. I also wanted an “impossible to get it wrong” approach along with all 3 module components to be stored as one collective object and then break apart so I could place each component on tables separately. The final solution for this project also is a big winner in the NBPS Fab Lab!
You Light Up My Life
At North Broward Prep, each Trimester in the Fab Lab was driven by a different theme. The theme of Light was probably my most favorite. Students began by understanding electricity through constructing a copper tape circuit. As with all projects, students followed an Art + Engineering ideation process that was documented in their personal websites (High School students) and e-Books (Middle school.)
Whether laser cutting, 3D printing or playing with paper, Makers experimented with the science of electricity and the beauty of light. I always like to challenge myself in parallel with students; the 3D printed lamps were the first projects where I experimented with using translucent filament. It was a learning curve for everyone, but the results were WOW!
High School Light Magic
Middle School Light Magic
Life Here and Elsewhere
Another Trimester theme was Life Here and Elsewhere. High School students were inspired and challenged to think about creating a space that served
as their own escape from the world. For their MicroSpace Retreat, I asked them to think about what a personal sanctuary room would look like? Would it be a chill room with music speakers or instruments, workout equipment, art making or books? What would your chill room look like?
As with all projects, students follow an art/engineering design ideation process. Here’s a glimpse into the creaton of a room from Sketch to final laser-cut version.
Creative Exploration
A confluence of self-expression, Aesthetics and Physics, Paper Engineer Rob Ives (robives.com) has created a library of templates for exploring the world of mechanisms. They can be printed on paper and cut with scissors, 3D printed or lasercut. I love the projects as analog machines, but yes you can take them to another level and add a motor too! The simple yet sophisticated crank mechanism below, is one of many of the Rob Ives’ templates in my repertoire of resources that continue to inspire learners of any age.
