Students become entrepreneurs in USN makers lab

Students are experimenting with 3-D printing and creating products for sale in this project-based learning class.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2019 edition of The Peabody Press with the headline, "Students Become Young Entrepreneurs in USN Class: Advanced Build and Design." Read more here from the High School student newspaper.

 By Sarah Jacobs ’21

This semester, High School students have been working hard in the new USN class Advanced Build and Design. The class is a way for students who have already taken engineering to further their knowledge by participating in a project-based class. With a goal of self-sustainability in mind, students can choose to take on the task of creating a tool or using machines to produce and sell a product. To reach their financial goal, students have advertised their sales around school. Posters of projects ranging from stamping calculator covers to 3-D printing facial silhouettes have been posted around high school areas. 

Students have been very creative in deciding how to profit from this project. Different projects include USN hacky sack T-shirt, 3-D prints of objects like a mortal combat dagger or initial keychains, a phone holder for the shower, engraved wooden luggage tags, and more. For his project, Senior Ian Brash decided to put a mirror in the third floor men’s bathroom.

Steven Slovenski, the Advanced Build and Design teacher, discussed the context and purpose of the project.

“People are trying to earn back some of the money we spent on the class for all the machines and materials, the idea is that I got a grant for designing an affordable maker space, so the best way to make something affordable is to make it pay for itself, and so this project is a part of that,” said Slovenski.

Slovenski described his intent for students in through this project.

“They’re going to learn about marketing, product design, how to interview people to figure out what they want, and about how to redesign things to make them solve the problems people have as best they can,” he said.

Senior Aasha Zinke decided to partake in this project by creating 3-D printed initial keychains. Using design software, she was able to make an alphabet and use the letter templates to design the 3-D print. Aasha found that through this project, she found a much better understanding of efficiency when creating her keychains in a limited class time each day. She described what she enjoyed about the experience of creating these keychains.

“I didn’t really think about industrial engineering as interesting, but finding ways to make a project more efficient is really satisfying, and the more time you save, the more the efficiency is visible, it’s really interesting,” she said.

Students in the class were enthusiastic and excited to learn about how to produce and sell. With only less than a semester of the class and projects in place, students in the class have designed, produced and sold their creations to their peers. This project stretched students' creativity and ability to, for most, a new, exciting level.

Slovenski takes a great deal of his satisfaction with the students’ work.

“Overall, I’ve been really impressed with the work the students have produced,” he said. Additionally, the class has a website where the student creations are displayed and sold, which is usn.org/awesome.
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