As part of the Utica Center for Science and Industry’s (CSI) Fundamental Design class curriculum, freshman students were challenged to design a cohesive furniture collection. Each student was placed in a randomly selected group of three to four students and given a specific setting where their furniture would be used. In addition to the setting, each group was assigned a particular furniture style, prompting students to explore the history of furniture design.

“My favorite part of this project was seeing the students use all the different skills they've learned this past year, all merged into one project. For this assignment, they used Photoshop, Illustrator, and SolidWorks to help design their furniture, and they had to collaborate with their partners,” said CSI design principles teacher Megan Berry. “This project was meant to teach students how to work in a group, manage their time, and develop effective communication skills.”

In addition to designing their furniture in the design class, students also wrote sales pitches in English class and applied math skills to scale down their designs for 3D printing.

“At first, this project was really stressful because my group and I were struggling with the program SolidWorks—it involved a lot of math, which we weren’t very strong at. But once we got to the designing part and were able to be creative, it became really fun,” said Davis Junior High School / CSI freshman Morgan Pit-og.

With their first CSI freshman trade show behind them, these students are walking away with stronger collaboration skills and newfound confidence in presenting to members of their community.

-By Natalie Rubel