Summer School...Session One (week 2)

Week two started with the Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter. Each person started by making their name out of vinyl. Next, the students were given a challenge to come up with a quote, saying, or to create a "logo". With one cutter there was a line waiting, but while each student worked with the software, the others were either planning their project or working with Scratch, littleBits or made more circuits.

Next came the Epilog Mini Laser Cutter. Students were shown how to create a box using "Box Maker" (http://boxmaker.connectionlab.org/) and how to import it into Inkscape. From there they arranged the pieces on the screen and added things like their name, shapes or numbers. We cut out the boxes and the kids glued them together.

Following this, the students were asked to draw a picture. They were first asked to draw it with pencil, then trace over it with black Sharpie marker. Each kid scanned their picture as a .jpeg and emailed it to a Mac Book Air. From there, they downloaded it and opened it with "Preview". They cropped it, exported it as a PDF and imported the PDF into Inkscape. Next they scaled the photo and drew a box around it, making sure the size was 0.001 inches (to make sure the laser cutter would vector it). Last, the students emailed their file to the laser cutters dedicated email address, where we "printed" them.

With these two projects under their belts, the students were given the design challenge of making a wa'a (that's Hawaiian for voyaging canoe...like the Hokulea...check out http://www.hokulea.com/ for more if you are interested). They were shown an example and asked to design their own...first on paper (with measurements) and then design it on Inkscape. We made prototypes out of cardboard, made any improvements needed and made the final cuts on wood. The wa'as were glued together and went on display.