In this blog I am going to tell the story of www.fusioneducatorshub.com and how we are using it to help develop the skills of students and in turn how students are using this to help and develop the skills of others.
The journey starts when I emigrated from Hull to Liverpool across the M62 and joined Liverpool Lifesciences UTC with the aim of setting up an engineering department. I have previously taught engineering but never CAD, and knew that I needed to develop my skills to be able to teach it. It was mentioned to me that there was this piece of software called “fusion 360” that was pretty decent. I found out that it was made by a company called Autodesk and I thought that if Fusion 360 was anywhere near as well put together as AutoCAD 2002 then it would give it a go.
I knew I had some skills to learn but made the decision to be open and honest with the students I was teaching and explain that they needed to come on a journey with me and learn together. Well that was 4 years ago and now many of the “originals” or “fusion 360 student ambassadors” are now in sixth form preparing for university and apprenticeship positions.
Unsurprisingly, the students (I imagine from playing too many video games) were very quick on the uptake of developing models in their new 3D world of Fusion 360. To kick start our development we had a number of training sessions delivered by one of my personal engineering heroes Steve Cox showing us the right to left journey of Fusion 360’s methodology. Steve initially set this up as CPD for staff, but after 1 weeks of lockdown video call training we realised that the students should be joining us on the journey. We finished off with an absolute master class from Steve on generative design … so, role the clock forward what happens when you introduce a set high school students to such design capabilities at such a young age.
We have been on quite the journey navigating building project such as headphones, speaker docking stations and that commonly know item of a laryngoscope during level 2 engineering (GCSE Equivalent students aged 14 – 16).
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Moving into Level 3 (A Level equivalent, students aged 16 – 19) we have completed the Autodesk Certified User examination with our students, built models to be used in digital twins of factories, run a number of competitions and completed many EPQ’s (we can tell this story in a later post) using the software as our base, and made some quite frankly crazy models just for fun.
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We decided to make www.fusioneducatorshub.com to showcase our work as well as provide support and encouragement for others who may be on a similar journey.
So, that’s where the journey finishes … well no it’s where the Journey starts for the next generation of our students. Well, what has happened is that our “fusion 360 student ambassadors” have now become the educators. You can see them each week sitting with younger students helping to develop their portfolios, supporting on project ideas and even writing tutorials to help our younger students along the way. Apparently, my endless steam engine tutorials don’t meet the demands of the modern student, but light sabers do.
You can access this tutorial here https://www.fusioneducatorshub.com/starter-projects
So, what do you student ambassadors say … These are a few words from Mika in Y12 the learner who made the light sabre tutorial
“For Fusion 360 ambassadors, it is more than just making tutorials and showcasing skills - it's a new learning curve. The ability to learn the ins and outs of a professional CAD software is one thing, but having the ability to teach people, who have no idea how such a software works, is a totally different ball game. Teaching is a skill that is more than just passing down information, it’s a way of reducing the facts learnt by the ambassador to small baby steps for the students, receiving the lesson.
Having made my first tutorial (The Lightsabre Challenge), I found many flaws through formulating the tutorial. If I was to make it all again, there would be a change to almost everything. There seems to always be a more efficient and effective way to do something, and it comes with experience. I may have been using Fusion 360 for 3 years, but I’ve found that through exploring the world of teaching I have a new perspective of my work.
I feel that having the possibility available for students from year 9 onward, to be able to reach the level of a student ambassador in year 12 is a fantastic opportunity for every student.
It can be a daunting prospect, but it is very rewarding knowing that some young enthusiastic students may begin their journey on Fusion 360 and engineering, using my tutorial.”
So, what is the impact developing “student ambassadors” … well it makes your life as a teacher less strenuous because the younger students don’t want me to help them anymore, they want the likes of Mika and our other ambassadors instead. Why? well quite simply they want to become like them, they are their role models, they are they are trailblazers to catch onto the coat tails of.
But it is not just about modelling skills but it is also about modelling professionalism and employability. It is one thing being able to understand that a zebra analysis exists, but it is another skill to be able to hold your own in a discussion with a super car company about how it can be applied to their designs and products. Having, the confidence to ask questions, the politeness to send a thankyou e-mail to people who invest time in their education and even spending time cleaning our manufacturing workspace are all skills and traits that our younger learners seen and hear being demonstrated.
Each learner entering our school has a story but no matter where you are in your journey having someone to look up to, talk to and want to be like makes a huge impact.
Our Journey to where we are now has been a bit squiggly, and I imagine it will continue to be so, but we will keep going and keep pushing the boundaries of education using Fusion 360 as our vehicle.
So, to sum up, why do we do this? because we want the best for our students, we want their abilities to be the best they possibly can be, but really you learn so much more when you are the “educator”. To give our students the chance to be the educators really give them the opportunity to learn so much more.
So, actually who is the educator … non of us we are all just students on a journey!
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