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Three Lakes Teaches Other School Districts About Fab Lab

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Teachers from Ladysmith and Florence joined a workshop in Three Lakes this week to learn the ins and outs of technology in the school's Fab Lab.

It's short for Fabrication Lab...and it's made up of a series of digital tools and machines including a 3D printer and a laser engraver.

Three Lakes Fab Lab director Steve Yahr  says Fab Lab 101 for Teachers gets them familiar with the tech tools.

“But more importantly than they they are learning the engineering-design process, which is the discipline that we put around the creative structure – the machines are simply a way to express the creation.”

Florence art teacher Erica Land says there's a learning curve for teachers as well as students.

“Where I've been the past few years teaching art, I haven't had access to any technology like this; I haven't used Adobe Illustrator in over ten years. So I'm like, I don't even know if I know how this works any more. So last week was kind of the basics, like this is the machine, this is the software we use with the machine.”

Last year Three Lakes became the first k-12 school in Wisconsin to host a Fab Lab.

Now Florence and Ladysmith are also installing similar workshops and tools.

The two-week course for teachers at those schools wraps up Thursday7/2.

Proponents say the model offers valuable insights into engineering and problem-solving, as well as a new way of thinking about design.

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