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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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, 2024
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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.