This collection of lessons from the GE Brilliant Career Lab bridges the gap between education and industry, classroom and career, and the economy of the future and the skills of today.
Airplane Mechanic
This lesson highlights an example of “Everyday in the life of an Airplane Mechanic”. What kind of work might an Airplane Mechanic do? Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul aircraft engines…
Wearable Device Designer
The teacher will guide students through the design and engineering process by supporting an environment that allows for trial and error, and celebrates iteration. The series is designed for 6th…
Biomedical Engineer
This lesson reflects on “Everyday in the life of a Biomedical Engineer” What does a Biomedical Engineer do? Biomedical Engineer Conduct research, along with life scientists, chemists, and medical scientists,…
IN THIS COLLECTION
This first-of-its-kind collection of digital fabrication learning experiences is designed to engage and inspire students through STEM career paths. These lessons can be deployed in partnership with teachers in middle and high school classrooms with the resources of a mobile lab. The mobile lab visits each classroom and includes equipment, materials, and an instructor that partners with the classroom teacher.
PROGRAM AND PARTNERSHIP
As part of GE’s $25M Brilliant Boston commitment to empower students to become globally productive citizens by providing access to learning experiences and skills necessary for the workforce tomorrow, the GE Brilliant Career Lab was developed in partnership with the Fab Foundation to enable students to investigate STEM careers through hands on experiences with digital fabrication tools in a mobile lab.
ABOUT THE GE BRILLIANT CAREER LAB
The Brilliant Career Lab is a resource for educators and students, providing curriculum, essential and technical skills development, career assessments, mentoring, exposure to college and career, and access to digital fabrication tools and knowledge. The program pilot started during the 2016-2017 school year In Boston Public Schools (BPS) with Tech Boston and English High Schools. Since then, the Brilliant Career Lab has exposed over 1,500 BPS students to future STEM careers, while supporting 50 teachers in incorporating digital fabrication and career exploration activities in their classroom.
Additionally, in collaboration with the Fab Foundation, Brilliant Career Play is an extension of the Boston Celtics and GE partnership that creates access for middle school students in a mobile lab environment to engage in hands-on, interactive educational experiences. Launched in November 2017, the Brilliant Career Play program has already visited 3 school districts throughout greater Boston, and exposed over 500 middle school students to STEM careers inspired by design and sports. Coupled with the mentoring and online support from Brilliant Pathways (formerly CFES ) and Everfi, students are exposed to STEM careers through a range of online and live experiences.
Brilliant Career Play launch event at the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot School in Boston, MA in November 2017.
STEM DIGITAL FABRICATION LESSONS
Make a statement
In this lesson, students will use the engineering design process to make an item that promotes an environmental or social justice message. The students will research an area of interest…
December 13, 2024
understanding plant life cycle
During this lesson, I showed students the life cycle of a plant, using the example of an apple, and since the students had no experience with digital production, I showed…
December 11, 2024
Christmas Cards
This series of lessons will take you through how to make a Christmas card using the Brother ScanNCut and the circuit playground express. These lessons can be adapted to be…
December 8, 2024
CO2 Dragsters
In this series of lessons, you will take students through the design and production processes in order to create their own CO2 Dragster. As a class, you will design a…
December 7, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Balsa Glider
Students will design and fabricate a glider. Test its flight, then optimize their design by adjusting the shape of its wings, tail, or body. This activity will introduce two…
December 3, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Dice
Design your own 3D-printable dice! Use CAD (computer-aided design) software to build out an idea in three dimensions. Choose your dice geometry and decide what to put on each face.…
December 3, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Spinning Tops
Give engineering a spin: experiment with physics while designing and fabricating a custom spinning top! Get hands-on with energy, force, and momentum as you experiment with different 3D-printed designs. How…
December 3, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Botanical Press
Combine art and science: customize and fabricate a botanical press that can be used over and over again to preserve leaves and flowers for crafts or dissection.
December 3, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Stamps
Students will embark on a creative journey to design a personal logo that reflects their (or a brand’s) unique identities and values. By combining graphic design principles with self-reflection, they…
December 3, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Invention Kits
Create your very own invention kit! Design and laser cut a set of two-dimensional shapes that can slot together to make three-dimensional structures. Finished kits can be used for…
December 2, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Pop-Up Cards
Explore math, form, and function while engineering pop-up paper art. Use a vinyl cutter to make two-dimensional artwork “pop!” Add score and cut lines to cardstock to fabricate custom, folding…
December 2, 2024
Fab-in-a-Box Stickers
Design and fabricate your very own custom stickers! Use digital CAD software to bring your ideas to life before cutting them on the vinyl cutter. Whether you’re a budding graphic…
December 2, 2024
ScaleSpace – Visualizing the Solar System Through 3D Models
In this lesson, students will explore the vastness and diversity of the solar system by creating scale models of planets, moons, and other celestial objects. Using astronomical data, they will…
December 2, 2024
SHAPE BUILDERS
This lesson is designed to help students deepen their understanding of geometry – shapes and their attributes. Prior to the lesson, students must have been introduced to the vocabulary…
December 1, 2024
Chemical Bonding Game
Driving Question: How can we, as game designers, create a playable board or computer (Chromebook) game that teaches players the properties, behavior, and structure of ionic and covalent compounds? …
November 26, 2024
Human Eye Model: A Hands-On Investigation of the Functions of the Parts of the Eye
This lesson provides students a constructivist approach to learning the functions of the different parts of the human eye. Leading up to this lesson, students learned the properties of light…
November 21, 2024STANDARDS-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.