Explore 2000 Middle School was funded by the Verizon foundation for the 2015-16 school year to implement the Project Lead The Way curriculum for Design and Modeling. Throughout the school year, students explored their creative sides while working in a S.T.E.M. environment.
One of the projects that stood out was Aidan Gonzalez’s UFO assembly using the Autodesk Inventor application. This software allows students to create and design anything they can imagine. Aidan’s imagination led to the creation of a UFO, which he successfully designed utilizing this software. This software is advanced because of the knowledge required of the many tools in order to successfully manipulate objects within the program. Because of Aidan’s willingness to learn, he displayed mastery in specific tools, which allowed him to create what he envisioned.
Aidan added, “In Ms. Benito’s after school program, I learned many things about the process of Designing and Modeling. The Design Process is a series of steps in which each step contains a certain set of criteria to advance to the next step. During our project-based work sessions, we also designed actual products, one of them being a pegboard. Using the skills and technological knowledge from previous lessons, I came up with the idea for a UFO. I started exploring the various sculpting tools in the Autodesk Inventor program during this short period of time. I was able to continue working on the project with Ms. Benito in the after school program. After she examined the work I currently had on the file at that time, she said we would work on it together and make it the best it could be so it could soon be printed. With the help of Ms. Benito, and the advanced tools of the 3D application, I was able to create the UFO you see before you.”
