This project was intended to target our local community by spreading the concept of S.T.E.A.M (STEM with art) to a child audience. We were given the wonderful opportunity to host a workshop at our county's central public library where children can create a take-home item that brings trial and error within its workability. To fuffit these requirements, our class decided to produce cardboard airplanes (modeled after balsa wood planes) with modular pieces. Each person brought their unique design that could be combined with parts from other students to sometimes create unexpected results.

Teamwork makes the dream work - Brainstorming ideas with others, dividing and conquering, and helping a teammate with their build always makes for a better project. Harness the hive mind and embody the old adage, "2 brains are better than 1." You may be a project leader, collaborator, or consultant. Each role has a place in the shop. And remember, there's not just one right way; there are many.

Make for others - Making things for yourself is great, but making things for others is OUTSTANDING! What does your community (family, friends, school, coworkers, local organizations, global organizations) need, and can you use your maker skills to help?

Figure it out - My first central goal with this project was to recreate the Concorde airplane into cardboard, and this came with its own unique set of challenges, such as using a reference 3D model in Fusion of the plane.

Making is a lifestyle - Beyond the airplanes, we created other parts out of cardboard to add a less junky look to our workshop without buying all-new pieces to (for example) mount hula hoops onto chairs for the planes to fly through.

• Importing sketches as Dxfs in Fusion: This technique would have saved me so much time during my many robotics seasons when I used to use unorthodox methods to convert parts to laser cut. I used to believe that only Adobe Illustrator files could be imported into Lightburn, so I always converted my sketches into Illustrator and then into Lightburn.

• Figuring out plane flight/longevity was a constant trial and error, especially after my first prototype failed. I wish I could do this again after better understanding basic fluid dynamics.

1.  Making the wingspan large seemed to have a positive relationship with the distance the plane could fly. 

2.  Make a durable nose that can withstand the bending from the plane crashing into objects, as well as the clip-on weights to balance the aircraft.

3.  There should be a 5mm difference between the body outline and the cut-out designated for both wings. Do not make these cut-outs absurdly large, as it hinders the structural integrity of the plane.

Design Intent - Reflect on your original design intent. Did you accomplish what you set out to achieve?

My original design intent was to create a cardboard airplane faithful to the Concorde aircraft. By this metric, I succeeded in importing a 3D model of the plane into Fusion as reference material to recreate its beauty. However, this was far from the original goal of simply designing places for kids that could fly, so I eventually had to divert my work into something that could actually fly. 

Core Competencies - When you started this project, you chose three core competencies to work on. Reflect on your progress towards growth in those three areas. In what ways did you demonstrate growth? Were there missed opportunities you'd like to do over? In what ways can your growth translate to other aspects of your life?

I believe that I best demonstrated improvement when it came to teamwork. I tend to work as a one-man army when it comes to designing things, so it was a nice refresher to work as a class to make universal parts compatible with each of our planes. However, I wish I could have grown more when it came to making things for others. For example, realizing the different motor skills of a child would have led me to design the plane bottom with more open cardboard that could be easily held onto.

Skills - What new skills did you learn in terms of tools, materials, design, etc? Which skills would you like to work on more in the future?

The main skill I learned during this project was the importance of importing and exporting things out of Fusion. The software is great, but we have access to other software capable of niches that Fusion is not well-equipped with (such as pathing images with Lightburn). As well, I had to tune in my fine motor skills and combine my parts that had very light tolerance together without bending the cardboard. 

Timeline - Reflect on your time management throughout the project. Looking back, would changes would you make to your proposed timeline? How wisely did you use the time available for the project? What recommendations would you make for yourself in terms of time management for your next project?

Although this was not directly my influence, the set date we had to bring these pieces allowed us to have a very rock-solid timeline. The process was efficient while not taking away necessary time for R&D. However, it would have been better if I had understood the time it would take to manufacture 15 copies of my final design, as I was unable to print all of the sheets on my own time.

Safety - What did you learn about safety in the shop during this project? Did you make any mistakes you learned from? Are you curious about any safety practices and why they are important? What might you need to focus on going forward so you keep yourself and others safe in the shop?

I learned that I needed to keep my eyes on the laser cut the hard way when, after looking away for a second, one of my cuts began to catch fire. What I need to (and have been) working on further is to focus myself on the tool and the tool only. It's good to prevent habits like this now before I begin to use tools with much higher risks of bodily harm. Don't give in to any distractions when operating such machines!

Risk-taking - What risks did you take during this project? When did you step out of your comfort zone?

Because of the stricter timeframe, I decided to take fewer risks in this project and stick with what I saw working, although because of the short timeframe in which I had to come up with an entirely new design, you could consider this a risk in itself. The only significant risk I can think of was with my first goal of designing a cardboard copy of the Concorde, which I thought would fly like its real counterpart. 

Curiosity - Now that the project is done, what are you still curious about in terms of the project itself, tools, the shop, or future projects you could try based on the skills you learned?

It would have been interesting to try out different types of materials for the airplanes, such as foam core or even PLA, or think of ways to provide propulsion to the plane, such as rubberband-powered propellers. I would love to continue my first goal of creating a scaled version of the Concorde that is capable of flying and not solely gracefully falling. However, I would have likely had to distance myself from the original scaled design to make it properly fly.