Linked Learning: High Tech Shop Class Debuts at Oakland's Castlemont High School

By Doug Oakley
doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com
OAKLAND -- Castlemont High School junior Chris Arrington used a socket set to take apart a computer-controlled wood-carving machine and a vacuum cleaner to suck out saw dust jamming the machine's moving parts. 

The troubleshooting exercise was worth it: Arrington got to take apart a machine and fix it, and he got to create a medieval-looking wooden sword using its software. The CarveWright he used to make the sword is just one of several high- and low-tech tools in the school's new fabrication laboratory, or FabLab, which opened in January. 

"I decided to take this class for fun and to try something new," Arrington said while working on the machine in the lab. 

What Arrington may not realize, the lab's founder says, is that the carving machine, three-dimensional printer and other fancy equipment purchased for the new lab are not just for fun -- they also are planting seeds in students' minds for future careers. 

"This is part of our career pathway to design and engineering," said Castlemont teacher Timothy Bremner, who conceived the idea for the FabLab as part of the school's Sustainable Urban Design Academy, which he also founded four years ago. "The lab at Castlemont, hopefully, will prepare kids to be in the Laney College fablab." 

Danny Beesley, who teaches in the lab and helped Bremner set up the space at Castlemont in an abandoned R.O.T.C. indoor shooting range, is setting up a similar lab at Laney College. In addition to the computer-controlled tools, the Castlemont lab has electric saws, drills, work spaces and a huge wall of hand tools. At the end of the former indoor shooting range where targets used to be set up, there are hydroponic demonstration boxes filled with plants growing without soil. 

"It's a mix of traditional shop class tools with an infusion of technology," Beesley said. "We're trying to link the learning in this lab to literacy. We built book shelves to learn about volume and area. In shop class, what you read in a book or hear in a class makes sense now because you have your hands on it." 

He also has students working on furniture designs similar to what you might find at IKEA. All the pieces will fit together using dowels and notches. 

Both Beesley and Bremner said the lab looks similar to those on high school campuses 20 or 30 years ago, except that many of the machines are controlled by software. 

"Shops like this got cut from schools in the past because they were not specific to the mission that everyone in high school should go to a four-year college when they graduate," Beesley said. 

With the new push for linked learning, a singular focus on four-year colleges is changing. Educators are rediscovering shop classes that disappeared from high schools years ago, offering preparation for skilled trades that may take only a community college certificate or an apprenticeship. 

"A lot of teaching that happens in this space gives students a primer on how to use tools," Beesley said. 

Some of the careers relevant to inspiration students get from the lab could be electronics, carpentry, cabinet making and welding, Beesley said. 

The most popular machine in the FabLab is the computer-controlled laser cutter, which can etch images on surfaces including plastic, glass, metal and wood. 

Belem Gamuz, 15, used the machine to fabricate a copy of her church emblem on a small sheet of wood. 

"It's pretty cool what we get to do here," said Gamuz. "It's fun and interesting." 

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