This collection of lessons from Intermediate Unit One combines elements of digital fabrication with mental health wellness supports for all students.

INTERMEDIATE UNIT ONE COLLECTION

Mini LED Flashlight

Students will design and fabricate their very own mini LED flashlights! Students will create a case that fits all of the internal components of the flashlight. This can be done using…

REMIX: MP3 SPEAKER + MENTAL HEALTH

Students will be given an amplifier/speaker kit to assemble and solder. Students will also create a casing for this circuit system. This can be achieved by using the step-by-step tutorial…

Personalized Rally Towels

Students will create a personalized rally towel that contains at least one image and a name. This can be done using the step-by-step tutorial design that follows, or by creating their…

IN THIS COLLECTION

Intermediate Unit One is committed to improving the educational outcomes of children and adolescents who experience mental health needs by providing both targeted and general mental health wellness activities in classrooms, including FabLab classrooms.

General mental health supports are provided in each lesson so that any digital fabrication instructor can incorporate mental wellness strategies.

about intermediate unit one

Intermediate Unit One (IU1) is a regional education service agency that strives to provide educational support to students, parents, educators, administrators, and communities throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. IU1 operates two campus schools which house digital fabrication labs designed to serve students with severe mental health needs. IU1 is committed to providing the highest level of emotional health care through unique social work opportunities within their fabrication labs.

Mental health wellness and DIGITAL FABRICATION

Good mental health is related to mental and psychological well-being. The World Health Organization states that worldwide 10-20% of children and adolescents experience mental disorders. Neuropsychiatric conditions are the leading cause of disability in young people in all regions. If untreated, these conditions severely influence children’s development, their educational attainments and their potential to live fulfilling and productive lives. Visit the World Health Organization for more: https://www.who.int/mental_health/en/

RECENT COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTED LESSONS

Emotions in Motion – مشاعر في حركة

This session explores the role of emotions and how they can be expressed through colors, shapes, and sounds. Children will engage in an interactive activity using the Makey Makey electronic…

December 17, 2025

Awarness Card – بطاقــة توعويـــــة

During this workshop, participants will assemble a simple circuit using conductive tape and chibitronics LED. Participants will learn about sustainability and awareness about energy conservation.   خلال هذه الورشة، سيقوم…

December 17, 2025
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AI Storytelling – سرد القصص بالذكاء الاصطناعي

In this workshop participants are going to be introduced to AI & Storytelling, they will use Yarn platform that utilizes AI features to make a story about empowering women in…

December 16, 2025
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Renewable Energy Lab Tutorial for UNIHIKER K10

This kit is a scientific exploration kit based on the UNIHIKER K10. It is equipped with components such as a wind power generator, a solar panel, and an energy storage…

December 16, 2025
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Speed Rolling Down A Ramp | Smart Science Projects

This hands-on science and technology course guides students to recreate Galileo’s classic inclined plane experiment using Micro:bit, BOSON light sensors, and self-made cardboard structures. Students will first master the principle…

December 16, 2025
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Protect our teeth

Understand the structure of your teeth and develop good habits to take care of them.Caring for your teeth should start with daily habits, developing good practices for using and protecting…

December 15, 2025
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Programmable Electronic Musical Instruments

Students will construct their own electronic musical instruments, and get introduced to block programming to make their instruments play sounds.

December 14, 2025
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Reaction Game using Micro:bit

This lesson works better if students had some previous experience working with Scratch or similar coding software. The lesson focuses on students creating a reaction game with simple materials and…

December 14, 2025
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Constelations

During this lesson, students are able to experiment with electricity a topic that they had been learning before, which is constellations. This lesson has a combination of FabLab interactive activities…

December 9, 2025
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Build & Test Earthquake Proof Buildings | Smart Science Projects

This project will show you how to make an earthquake shake table to simulate earthquakes at different frequencies. Connect the model with a microcontroller to measure and visualize the earthquake…

December 8, 2025
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Let’s learn together: exploring linkages in motion

1.Areas/ subjects to connect This lesson about the mechanism called “linkages” could be very abstract for lower school students, but bringing it with a linkage manipulative to explore the mechanism…

December 6, 2025
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Geometric Light Art

  In this 3-hour lesson, students design and create layered geometric paper artwork enhanced with a simple LED circuit. Using Inkscape, students construct simple geometric compositions such as circles, polygons,…

November 27, 2025
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Verb Tenses

This lesson has been designed for students to work in learning centers. Four centers where kids are going to improve writing skills through different activities and work independent with the…

November 9, 2025

Kinetic Stories: Bringing Art to Life with Simple Machines

This lesson invites students to merge creativity, storytelling, and engineering through the design of a moving automata. Students explore how art and motion can work together to express ideas, emotions,…

November 7, 2025

RulCompass = Ruler + Compass

This is a prototype of a mathematical tool designed using Digital Fabrication for Students.   When teaching Geometrical Construction to 13-year-olds, students typically need to purchase a compass, which can…

November 5, 2025
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Decimals (Rounding off)

In this lesson, students explore rounding off decimals using number lines. In the past, number lines was drawn on the whiteboard to help students visualise rounding positions.   To enhance…

November 3, 2025

STANDARDS-ALIGNED

Community contributed lessons aligned with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)  offer formal educators innovative pathways to teaching content knowledge. The Fab I Can Statements are a resource to develop technology-literate learning progressions to align with content standards.

FAB TESTED

Periodically lessons are adapted and tested by the Fab Foundation team based on a call for submissions from fabbers, educators, and makers.  Our inaugural set of lessons for the SCOPES-DF project were Fab Tested in 2016 and are tagged Fab Tested on the website.

OPEN-SOURCE VALUES

Lessons are distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC license, that permits free use and re-purposing by others.