What happens when you combine ingenuity, passion and cutting-edge equipment? Juniors in Ma’ayanot’s STEAM elective have opened “Made@Maayanot,” an online pop-up store where students are selling their own 3D-printed creations! Juniors in this course are applying their coding and engineering skills, honed over three years of STEAM studies, and creating personalized products using the newest tools in Ma’ayanot’s premier Makerspace. “In this combination of fabrication and entrepreneurship, students conceive, design and create products with the end user in mind,” said Gila Stein, science and STEAM chair. Made@Maayanot, which will raise money for a tzedaka to be chosen by the students, is starting with sales to Ma’ayanot students, parents and faculty, with plans to expand. “The students implemented every detail, from designing the website, photographing the products, setting prices based on materials costs, marketing the products, and creating products to fill the orders,” explained Reyce Krause, STEAM instructor and director of STEAM curriculum. “It’s super cool to be able to take everything I have learned in STEAM and be able to apply it in creating our own business!” said junior Jamie Orgen.
The ninth and 10th grade core STEAM classes are also doing pioneering work. Ninth grade has a full curriculum of CAD (computer aided-design) 3D printing with Fusion 360. They also integrate their work with other school disciplines; they created copper foil circuits correlating with models in math, chemistry and even Chumash. Staff in the Makerspace have 3D-printed replacement parts for the maintenance team, and students laser-cut a sign for Ma’ayanot’s Chanukah display.
Tenth grade is creating personal computer boards which they are designing from scratch: layering wires, drawing and labeling schematics, and inputting the specs into complex, professional-level software, for which Ma’ayanot has acquired educational licenses at no cost to the school. “Both the ninth and 10th grade work are unusually advanced for a high school course. Our students will be well prepared for design work in college and beyond,” said Krause.
