Laser Cutter for Math and Woodshop

Shop class at Cunha Intermediate School will be brought  to the 21st century and made into a cross curricular class with a laser cutter made by Glow Forge


I am the new shop teacher at Cunha Intermediate School and I aim to make it more than just a woodshop. I had the honor of running a summer camp for youth at a Maker Space and my views on what a shop class can be were forever changed. I have since started a Maker Club at Cunha and hope to expand what students at my school have access to. There are many laser cutters that are on the market. I have used one in the past and know there are huge software limitations when it comes to working with students. The GlowForge laser cutter is fully accessible for students to use and program remotely via the web interface. The programming is straight forward enough for middle school age students grasp and has enough versatility that they can grow and still be challenged to make more complex pieces.
The students at my school are from a diverse population. Many of which would never have the opportunity to use equipment such as a laser cutter. Many of my students are English language learners and from socioeconomic groups that are always in need of a helping hand. The scheduling at my school allows me to have almost every student at least once in shop class. This means that the laser cutter will be effecting over 700 children.

I plan to create cross curricular lessons that will tie student shop projects back to their other classes; including math, science and social studies classes. On initial conversations with other teachers in these departments some of the projects could include.

-Algebra tiles

-Topographical maps of historic sites

-Biological cell models

-School mascots

-Coordinate planes and graphs

-Simple machines

With your help the wood shop at Cunha Intermediate School will no longer be questioned as a superfluous class, but a necessity for students to make learning tangible.