How we developed content for the future of Making module in Mosaic project?
I have been involved in the mosaic project since early 2024 and in the spring of that year, a colleague and I had an interesting project to work on.
We were given the task to develop a CNC technology-related task for the learning module “The future of making in wood”. This module provides an overview of the future of the carpentry sector, the opportunities offered by new technologies and how the principles of sustainable development affect the whole. Alongside these issues, the module provides tasks that allow students to practise the use of new technologies. There are exercises for CNC machines, laser cutters and 3D printers. My colleagues and I have been involved with CNC machines in our work, so quite naturally our assignments were related to them.
So the task was to create an exercise and all the relevant material. The CNC exercises were divided in such a way that our Canadian colleagues had made two simple exercises for small 3-axis CNC machines and since we have a 5-axis machine in our school, we decided to make an exercise where the student gets familiar with the basic features of a 5-axis machine.
As the module focuses on the principles of sustainable development, a colleague suggested that we do an exercise based on the flat-pack philosophy. In flat-pack thinking, a product is designed so that it can be made in one piece and put together effortlessly, ideally without any additional fasteners. A colleague had made a rocking horse as his masterpiece in previous years, so we decided to try the same thing in a flat-pack style.
Product development was its own thing. We had to find out what our machine could do and adapt the product design accordingly. We wanted to make the exercise so that doing it would not only introduce the student to the capabilities of a 5-axis machine, but also produce a practical and fun product. We also wanted the rocking horse to be assembled without glue, screws, or any other fasteners. It took us a good hour and several prototypes to develop, each of which we learned something new and improved the design for the next prototype.
The production of teaching materials was another big area. We had to make video tutorials for the learning module assignments, so we also had to take on video filming and editing. It was something neither of us had done much of before, and there were a lot of mishaps along the way.
However, I have to say that for all its novelty, the experience was quite enlightening, educational and fun. The scripting, shooting and editing of the videos took quite a bit of work, but in the end we ended up with (at least in our opinion) quite good instructional videos, which combined with all the other visual and verbal instructions made the flat-pack tutorial a very good package.
Overall, the production of this teaching material was a very rewarding project in many ways. The understanding of the different techniques increased, the work and exchange of information with both a close colleague and Canadian colleagues was instructive and productive – even if the technology was sometimes a challenge – and the work provided many new insights!
Ville Arpiainen,
Assistant teacher, Furniture Making
Omnia, Finland