My name is Greg Holman and I am a teacher at Paradise Intermediate School in California. Most of you are likely aware of the wildfire that swept through our town in November. My science room (as well as most of the rest of the 6th grade classrooms burned.
We are starting school again next week in a nearby town at an old OSH building. We have ordered a Glowforge Plus as part of their education program. Hoping to hear some items folks have made that would likely be high interest and easy to do as first projects for 12 year olds. Several students are very interested in turning their original art into laser cut wood wall art.
Great that your students will have access to a GlowForge.
Here is a California framework file of the state and county boundaries, a little geography, political science and laser burning all rolled into one project. Might need a little vector editing too.
Have fun! The country has all of you in their thoughts!
Tell me if you need any map data of California. I have a ton of data; roads, streams political boundaries, digital elevation models. As your students get more sophisticated or your projects more complex, if you need more data just ask, or I can send other thematic layers.
Just an FYI, everyone here is already either an owner or has access to a GF via the aforementioned owners. While some may be thinking of purchasing, we’ve been asked by @dan to not post our referral codes here.
The Tehama County Department of Education MakerSpace has a Glowforge. You might want to contact them to see what experiences/projects they are using with theirs.
I was in Chico the day the fire started, and sent my staff to assist during. #ParasideStrong
Sounds like a very worthy project, and I wish you all the luck with the rebuilding.
You probably ought to know though that posting referral links here on the forum is discouraged, any referrals you get from it might be disqualified, and I’m not sure that it would do you much good anyway, since the handful of people that will see it likely already have machines and referral codes of their own. (You might want to post a notice with your referral link on a local Neighborhood electronic bulletin board…you might drum up quite a few referrals that way.)
You can edit the original post to remove the link by clicking on the little pencil icon at the bottom of the post.
Thanks so much! And if you want to check out some cool projects for the kids to do…there are hundreds of shared designs in the Free Laser Designs Section. Those can be modified for personal use so they’re a great way for the kids to get started, or get ideas.
You might just want to start with a simple plaque (maybe dated) and the scanned signatures of all the kids participating in the first classes/workshops.
My favorite first project for kids is to have them draw something simple and use the scan feature to etch and then cut it out. It’s quick and easy and draws them in without having to do any design work. Then you can build on that. Another option is to scan their drawings and etch them on ceramic tiles. They can then color the etches with sharpies. You can search the forum for examples.
Hello all,
I am trying to print some student art/thank you and having some trouble. I am waiting to get permissions to install Inkscape or Fusion 360 (Cannot load software on my district-controlled Surface without admin.) Can anyone suggest a web-based option? Trying to Cut the outer edge and engrave (deeper) the darker portions of the attached image. Any suggestions that might work before I get it loaded on my computer? It will let me “etch” the design, but wanted something better for a donor coming tomorrow to gift $2000 towards the GF.
Yes on the deeper etch (and the ability to cut the outer edge.) I think my temporary go around might be to size the image on an up-sized puzzle template.
So, for the cut, you need a vector line around the whole thing. Obviously software is the way to go, but if you don’t have it, you could draw the line on a piece of paper and scan it in via the GF. I believe there is also a file in the Free files section with various shapes. You can load that up and just change the size of the rectangle to suit (change the rest of the shapes to “ignore”).
As for the deeper engrave, you could do a second run with faster settings, maybe less power (just alter the PG settings). Just make sure not to move the piece after the first run so it stays lined up.
