2. Week 02¶
This week our entire branch of FLA created biomaterials together. It was neat to work together and explore and try something that even our local lead has rarely done. Notes on the lecture at my blog
Reflection¶
- Have you considered sustainable practices in your teaching in the pasts? How? What aspects do you think should be improved in your own teaching environment?
Honestly, sustainability beyond “Please try not to print out more things than you need to, but definitley print more things than you think you’ll need because something might happen to some of them” I haven’t thought about sustainability in teaching much.
Teaching with more fabrication generally (I’m used to teaching with electronics and bits of data) has encouraged me to encourage the students to think about the amount of material they are using, where they are cutting it out from, and how not to waste it, making sustainability a part of my teaching practice directly.
My students also think about sustainability. The first lesson I taught at my new job involved students throwing out the things they still had in their boxes from when they studied digital design and fabrication, so I got a lot of questions about if they could recycle certain things. What do you do with 3D printed objects when you aren’t using them anymore? leftover wood when there’s not enough to build most things out of? I appreciate that the students are thinking about this, and encouraging me to.
Generally, I feel like a maker mindset of trying things, making mistakes, and iteration does not blend terribly well with the idea of trying not to make mistakes that waste material. The focus could instead be on the material itself, and how to make it more sustainable, buy more sustainably, and think about what materials you are using throughout, in addition to the mindfulness of the materials I mentioned above.
2, How might Digital Fabrication support sustainable practices? When using Digital Fabrication what actions you can take to support sustainable practices.
Digital Fabrication at the very least encourages people to make things instead of buying them immediately. It encourages you to look at what is available and make things from what you have over just ordering things.
- Do you think your school is ready to a change in mindset? Why? How can you get support from other stakeholders? How would you structure a training for teachers?
My school is generally excited about all things sustainability; as long as I mention that we are talking about saving the environment and global warming I am pretty sure not only can I get my administration on board, they’ll be very excited to help, and encourage me to run a training for teachers. Alas, I do not think I am yet the correct teacher to run such a training; I would have to spend this summer looking into sustainable teaching practices, or at least reading several books on the topic before I felt comfortable being the teacher to tell everyoone else how to be sustainable.
Gallery¶
