Liceu Politècnic integrated the first Fablab@school in Spain.
Pioneer in incorporating FabLab@Schools.
The school Liceu Politècnic was founded in 1965 in the neighbourhood of Rubí, Barcelona.
In 2012 a group of teachers took over the reins of a small school with 196 pupils in Rubí, only a year later a second center was opened in the town of Sant Cugat. Since then they have been growing in stages and number of students, reaching 400 at present.
As a pioneer school in Spain to integrate a Fablab@School space within the curriculum, the school is able to teach from an early age, robotics classes incorporating technology with Google Suite for education, Inkscape, Scratch, Minecraft, TinkercaD (3D), Arduino, Sketchup (3D), Autodesk 123D, WordPress, App Inventor, CorelDraw (3D).
Learning Process.
The objective of the school through the Fablab@School space is to prepare students for their personal, creative and future growth. Positive results to be noticed after several courses are numerous, such as the improvement of creativity and argumentative capacity of students, the encouraged practical sense in the execution and a real cooperation between teachers and students on how to interact and collaborate.
Here's a typical day at our school: Our students work with Inkscape, an editing program to develop prototyping projects. First they make a sketch of the idea, then they discuss it with the group and later with the teacher. Once they have the finished design we cut the pieces on the laser and the construction begins. The students are familiar with how the laser works but they don't have direct access to its use.
The importance of the laser during the course of the project.
It is in the final process of the FabLab project that the laser plays a decisive role. That is the moment when the pieces resulting from so much time and calculation are obtained.
The students build the objects in plan or in volume related to the historical building they are studying and this has a large calculation content for the assembly of the parts. Usually they cut figures out of 3mm DM wood, as it allows greater flexibility and sometimes even in methacrylate.
Safety in an educational environment is very important! Although the laser is not a tool handled directly by our students as they are very young (between 6 and 12 years old), safety was paramount for our school. We were recommended other options, but we decided on the reliability that Trotec gave us for both the functionality and the safety it offers.
The certainty of having a reliable supplier.
When looking for laser cutters, Liceu Politèctnic was searching for a solvent and reliable supplier.
They finally decided to purchase a Speedy 100 laser engraver and cutter and have not had a breakdown so far.
The decision to become a Trotec customer was made because Trotec offers not only high cutting and engraving quality but also the security of a European brand and local technical service. The technical advice available at any time offers the certainty of always being accompanied.
I would recommend Trotec for any school looking to implement a Fabrication Lab and modernize their technology classroom.