Looking for other shopbot educators

[mccoy178]

Hello,
I have purchased a PRTAlpha from Joel Schuman and have put it in our high school for the students. I am in Central Ohio and I am looking for other teachers, or shopbotters alike that would be willing to let me see their setups and get some useful tips and information. Since it is summertime, I am willing to travel and I appreciate anyone's help. Please either reply in this post or shoot me an email.

Thanks,
Ben McCoy

[ryan_slaback]

Ben,
I teach in Southern WI, South of Madison. I have a 96 PRTAlpha. I would be happy to show you around if you want to drive this far.

[hh_woodworking]

Ben,
I am in Southwest Missouri and would help if I can
I have a prt 48 not an alpha
Ed Harrall

[mccoy178]

My brother lives in Kansas City right now and I believe I could justify a road trip! I would like to discuss with you guys your curriculum and how you guys apply the shopbot in your classes. I am the only technology education teacher we have, so I only have two classes of woods to use this. I do plan to use it in other courses and obviously for other projects, but attempting to get the most out of this in two periods is an exciting challenge. In this being my first year, I also have brought ProE engineering software to the school for design. I plan to use the implementation of that program, the vectric software under an educational license, and the shopbot to help our students have a taste of not only traditional woodworking, but also the application of ideas that are at the next level.

[andyb]

Ben,
There is some info on the Shopbot website for teachers put together by Jay Wiese. http://www.shopbottools.com/forteachers.htm It's not much but it may give you a starting point.

Andy B.

[billp]

To ALL educators,
For some time we've been toying with the idea of trying to do a compilation of what's going on in school shops around the country, and then making the information available for everyone. It would essentially be a place where you could do more than just "show and tell" others what you are doing, and what is working in your district.
In traveling around the Camp Shopbot circuit I keep meeting more and more teachers who are looking for similar access, and if we get enough interest expressed we'll try to get something started.
Another aspect here is the idea of establishing some sort of standards for "CNC certification" in different states.
Brett Dickinson of Brownsville, Texas has already started to assemble materials, and I know that there are some other teachers who have managed to work the Shopbot into their existing curriculum.
I also know from my own experience in a variety of school systems that it will be almost impossible for US to set up a single program that would be usable in all districts, but if we can compile enough different lesson plans, projects, and case histories we might be able to form a comprehensive enough "pool" of information for everyone to draw from. The potential ability to have hundreds of educators working together on this one makes a lot of sense. We might even be able to turn this into some sort of a national gathering/seminar/workshop, etc.

Let me throw the idea out here, and see what kind of response we get.....

[hh_woodworking]

Bill,
I will help. I have not written specific lesson plans for shopbot yet but I will be this summer as we are rewriting our curriculum for next year.
Ed

[hh_woodworking]

Ben,
Let me know when or if you want to meet me at my shop. We are about 2.5 hrs from KC.
Ed

[mccoy178]

I will. I've been trying to work out the details of a road trip, but I need to get through this week first. Finals both at OSU and at the high school are eating up all my time. I am really excited to meet you guys and I'm looking forward to getting this going.

[wendell]

I lived in Columbus for several years and have friends who have ShopBots in their labs. (Near Marion Ohio) I haven't talked to them in awhile but I may be able to hook you guys up. I just don't know what their summer plans are. I use a tabletop at school here in Atlanta and have an older PRT at home if you're in the area. There's also a fellow who trained me in Marion. His name is John Forney and has actually used a bot since the late 90s. I have a short unit on how to use PartWizard to make signs, which are very high interest, if you're interested.