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Students wrote articles for the local animal shelter to help them educate guests about common misconceptions around animal shelters and pet ownership. These articles were digitally published, and the class mate a laser engraved sign with QR codes for the articles and the shelter's social media pages. In the same groups that collaborated on the articles, students built dog houses with unique art based on themes around paint colors they selected. These dog houses were gifted to the shelter to distribute to members of our community whose animals needed better outdoor accommodations. Articles required outlines, multiple drafts and critiques. Dog houses required outlines/sketches and prototypes leading up to their final products. Below you will find images of the students work and captions explaining the process. One group wrote an article about what they learned from building something, which you can read here, along with seeing pictures of all the students' final projects.
PROJECT LAUNCH: Animal control officers came to HHS to explain what they do, how helpful it would be to have the articles and the dog houses, and to answer questions about their work.
Groups ranked their choices for colors and article topics in order to decide how to design the artwork on their dog houses and the focus of each group's writing.
Groups used color samples to come up with designs on paper for what their dog houses would look like. Each group was allowed to pick a limited number of additional colors to add to their designs with exterior paint based on their pencil/colored pencil sketches.
Students learned measuring and marking skills by laying out designs on their 1:3 scale model materials. Once satisfied with their layouts, students learned how to use several power tools on the smaller (and less expensive) materials to cut out, assemble and paint their prototypes. Each of these required new skill acquisition.
Prototypes: In addition to learning how to use the tools on a smaller scale, the mini-project of a prototype dog house helped students see how their final products would look. Some final designs look completely different from their initial plans, and others made smaller adjustments, but everyone got to practice painting on a small scale before building their full sized final products.
With their prototypes complete, students moved on to applying the skills they developed onto the full scale model, including learning some new tools like pocket hole kids and power drills.
With the pieces cut out, students moved on to painting their pieces before assembling. Some designs were more complex than others, and some chose to laser cut and paint emblems to attach to the front of the houses. Groups who finished ahead helped other groups catch up.
After initial assembly, students learned how to attach roofing felt, shingles, and roofing tar to finish their products.
With the houses rapping up, students did a bit of math and used the laser cutter to engrave the sign that would offer links to the Animal Shelter's social media, and host the articles they wrote in class.
Students enjoyed a short field trip to the animal shelter to present their final products to animal control officers and a representative from the Hopewell police department.
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