Meet the Maker: Matt Zigler, BullisBITLab

Matt Zigler turned his participation in Project Egress into a learning experience for some of the students of Bullis School BITlab, using a Shopbot CNC router to carve the part out.

Matt Zigler turned his participation in Project Egress into a learning experience for some of the students of Bullis School BITlab, using a Shopbot CNC router to carve the part out. Luckily, they went the sturdy route, as their outer window withstood quite a pounding from Adam Savage during the live build.

Read on to learn more about Matt, his students, and their part for Project Egress.

Bio: Matt Zigler is the coordinator of the Bullis School BITlab. In this role he teaches making courses such as Making for Social Good and Iteration and Design. He also works closely with content area teachers to help them replace tests and papers with hands-on, meaningful, learning experiences and writes about them on his blog. Matt has an MFA in Painting and incorporates technology and digital elements into his own artwork.

About Bullis BITLab: Located in the Gerald L. Boarman Discovery Center, the BITLab is a campus hub for STEM activity. The Makerspace for robotics and high tech design is a place where creative individuals can find the tools to build almost anything. This space is the home for 3D and resin printers, vinyl and laser cutters, sewing machines, and workstations. Learning in a Makerspace is more than just learning how to use those tools, it is about learning how to create new things, solve problems creatively, and design objects and experiences that can change lives. This is learning that is truly meaningful and impactful.

The adjacent Fab Lab features such equipment as a bench grinder, welding station, CNC router, milling machine, vacuum former, ducted spray booth, drill press, injection molding machine, furnace and much more.

But the true magic is in the creativity and innovation that the space and the equipment enables. From Spanish classes to leadership clubs, theater tech needs to math manipulatives, the BITlab regularly provides everything students and their teachers need to bring learning to life and build in three dimensions just about anything that can be imagined.

PART #8: OUTER WINDOW

Artist statement: “Being a K-12 educational space, what I loved about this project was being able to use it as a teaching moment with students in the Fab Lab. We got to discuss how digital fabrication works and how different it is from when these parts were originally created. The fact that digital files that were designed in one place were sent out to 40 plus different labs and makers who then returned the physical parts back to be assembled successfully in one afternoon is an amazing illustration of the power of digital fabrication and the maker community. This is the kind of understanding about how things can be accomplished in the 21st century that I want all of my students to understand and have access to.”

Links: Website | Medium.com Article