Beijing's Best Bookends

At the start of the school year, Mr Wade’s Year 7 students were set the task of creating a pair of bookends that show a scene or tell a story.

Students shared ideas, producing several design proposals, before coming up with a rendered and annotated final design.

Students produced the ‘L-shaped’ wooden bookends completely by hand. This aspect of the task was designed to improve manual dexterity and the ‘hands-on’ skills of the students, whilst doing so they learned about where wood comes from, the differences between hardwoods and softwoods and different types of wooden joints.

Next, Year 7 then set about designing the ‘scene’. This part of the project introduced students to CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). The scene was designed using design software (Techsoft 2D Design) and then the silouhettes were cut out with a laser cutting machine.

A cleverly designed ‘peg’ on the silouhettes enabled them to sit in a small notch on the actual bookend.