Shop class isn't what it used to be

Kent Winship modeling an Orca skull (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

"This is not your grandfather's shop class." And John Neibergall, from Sherwood High School in Oregon, is out help others with that. Last month over spring break shop teachers convened in Sitka, Alaska, for a professional development class. Neibergall explained, "I'm helping some teachers and students get into digital design and fabrication."

So they spend three days drawing, scanning, printing, and just exploring the state-of-the-art technical tools in the shop lab.

Here at McNeel & Associates, we are particularly proud that we helped one of the teachers, Kent Winship of the UAF Bristol Bay / Dillingham campus. Self-taught in Rhino and struggling, he signed up with Bob Koll's online teacher training last November. Now Winship is a poster child of a top notch fab-lab.

KCAW, the Sitka public radio station, highlighted the class in their news.

Listen to or read the KCAW article...