PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Sure, they still use textbooks and pencils — but just as frequently, students from Blackstone Academy Charter School are now working with laser cutters, 3D printers, drills, saws and sanders.
That’s thanks to a new class called Makerlab, which is the result of a partnership between educators at the Pawtucket, Rhode Island, high school and Brown University students and staff at the Brown Design Workshop. The high-schoolers travel to Brown’s 10,000-square-foot makerspace each week to transform ideas into creations, learning woodworking and metalworking along with design and engineering skills.
Blackstone Academy science teacher Aaron Weinblatt created the elective in 2022 to offer a creative complement to traditional science courses for students at the public high school, which serves more than 350 students from Pawtucket, Central…
