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December 2022 Newsletter
Contents:
Program Highlights
- Community Meeting #3: The Great Maker Race
- Community Meeting #4: Board Game Design Challenge
- Surprise guests!
- Final fall workshops and LAE forums
That's a wrap!
Living ArtsEngine has wrapped up the Fall 2022 semester!
Our November Community Meeting welcomed our friends from Maker Works who led us in the Great Maker Race! Teams were tasked with designing, building, and testing styrofoam and medium density fiberboard race cars. To create the cars they used custom-designed circuit boards, laser-cut acrylic, CNC-cut plywood, metal brackets, and a drill for the wheel holes. After testing and perfecting their cars they raced them down the racetrack to see how they measured up to the other custom cars.
Our final Community Meeting of semester was run by our awesome RAs Parker, Forrest, and Molly. They challenged the community teams to make a board game. Half way through their creation time, teams were given an additional task of coming up with a short skit to "sell" their board game to a team of judges in the style of the show Shark Tank. The judges (our Peer Mentors and two special guests) then individually made their decisions of Buy or No Deal. We had a great variety of board games presented by our teams!
More Program Highlights
Surprise guests for LAE!
Also at the final Community Meeting we had two surprise guests join us for the Shark Tank portion of the event. Sparked by a roll of Al Dente Pasta Company package labels picked up by the Peer Mentors at Scrap Creative Reuse, the pasta company has become somewhat of a mascot for the community. As a special surprise, the company was contacted to invite them to join us at our final meeting of fall semester. Cindy and Isabel were our special guests from Al Dente, they were incredibly kind and generous to join us for this fun surprise. Photos, autographs, and laughs ensued and one team's board game was chosen as the Al Dente favorite and received a prize of their own - Al Dente pasta to take home!
Final fall workshops and LAE Forums
Our final workshops of the fall semester were a fun mix of activities. Peer Mentor Tate led a BrickLink Studio workshop where students used the digital workspace to design LEGO models. Peer Mentor Noah led an Origami workshop where he taught students origami folding basics with tips for how add their own additions. Student Programming Board Member John led students through the songwriting tool HookTheory and helped them make their own songs!
We also held three forums for the LAE students. During these forums students discussed and gave feedback on their experiences with the program thus far, asked questions, and voiced their concerns. These gatherings have already sparked ideas for next semester and beyond. Thank you to all of the students who were able to attend and share!
❄ Happy Holidays ❄
We wish you all a very happy, healthy, and safe holiday season! We look forward to seeing the LAE Community when you all return.
