Using laser cutters in high school education

With the continuous advancement of technology, high school curriculums have gradually started including technology-oriented classes and cross-disciplinary teaching models in recent years. In this article we will look at the National Chia-Yi Industrial Vocational High School in Taiwan, exploring the role of digital maker tools in high school education, and the efforts made by high school teachers for cross-disciplinary teaching.

In the past, a lot of high school technology courses were mainly theory-based with traditional teaching methods and few practical experiences. This led Mr. Gu, a technology teacher, to consider the limitations and possibilities of the existing teaching model.
He found that theoretical classes can often be boring for students, so he started thinking about ways of integrating maker tools into courses.

Mr. Gu had experience with 3D printing, so he thought about how to integrate 3D printers into the curriculum. Considering that for a lot of students who have not been exposed to digital drawing software before, the entry barrier for 3D printers is too high, he looked at other options.

“Initially when I started the class, the students were unsure of what to print. 3D printing isn’t as straightforward as sketching something and immediately printing it.”

To make technology more approachable for his students, Mr. Gu adopted the Beambox Pro laser cutter and engraver as a teaching aid.
Using a laser cutter allowed students to draw their own designs and then create them in various materials. Beambox Pro significantly reduces the challenges faced by students in digital creation.

Mr. Gu has redesigned his course to merge an introduction to laser principles with creative ideation activities, effectively transitioning from traditional theoretical teaching to a more interactive approach that promotes creativity and critical thinking.
Laser cutters provide educators with a more intuitive teaching environment. Beam Studio’s user-friendly software interface allows students to quickly get started and easily complete artwork. Beambox Pro’s camera preview function allows them to precisely position the designs and materials, which significantly reduces mistakes and material waste.

One of the activities that students participate in is making hand-drawn rubber stamps. They draw illustrations on paper and once they have completed their drawings they take a picture of it.
These pictures are loaded into Beam Studio, where they can make the necessary adjustments, flip images, tweak the cutting and engraving parameters a bit, and voila, the rubber stamps are brought to life!
Even without previous experience in digital drawing, students can readily create digital art pieces through the simplicity of hand drawing. Beambox Pro greatly extends the range of students’ creativity, allowing creative ideas to be made tangible.

Mr. Gu is also organising a course focusing on 3D paper flowers and anticipates that students will relish the thrill and accessibility of digital creation. Serving as a reliable teaching ally, the Beambox Pro laser cutter and engraver will continue to help teachers develop inventive digital creation courses.