Middle and high school students from schools across Hamilton County talked Wednesday with teachers about their experiences working in eLabs on the final morning of the Chattanooga Fabrication Institute.
Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences teacher Jennifer Mitchell introduced students Taylor Bowles and Jamie Hayes, both 18, who discussed how the eLab inspired them to become biomedical engineers. Projects they worked on included an architecture project for geometry class, making T-shirts and lip balms, along with helping other students use the lab.
“We had our very first project done in there, and then it was to the point where we were helping younger kids, like the elementary students,” Bowles told the audience at Chattanooga Whiskey Event Hall. “Really the eLab was a place for people of any age. We had elementary students come in there, and we were helping them with different projects.”
Students and teachers took to the stage to share their experiences with more than 150 teachers participating in this year’s event. The third annual conference, hosted by the Public Education Foundation in partnership with Hamilton County Schools and Volkswagen, began in 2018 and took a year off last year due to COVID-19.
Student volunteers have helped teachers learn the ropes with different digital fabrication tools in the eLabs. In the first presentation, Dalewood Middle School teacher Philip Cooper talked about a conversation he had with rising eighth grade student Aaron Wheeler, 13, at the end of the conference’s first day.