CUMMING, Ga. — Anyone who believes learning can’t be fun has not met PK Graff. He taught science and math at Georgia Tech, and he started integrating 3D printing into his curriculum.
“I started exploring how engineering plays into all of those different subject areas,” Graff said. “That led me to differentiate the curriculum and kind of customize it to each student's needs. That, in turn, brought me to how I now teach engineering infused with coding and computer science principles, kind of the whole gamut of STEM in any given subject.”
He’s now putting time and effort into a company he founded called Formulating Digital Solutions. The goal, Graff says, is to provide educational opportunities to people of all ages.
“I think there's been a big shift toward being more aware of the digital world that we live in, and I don't know if the education system is currently doing that Justice, especially in terms of coding and computer science, and the fact that that is now a part of literacy,” he said. “Reading, writing, and arithmetic are no longer just the foundations of Education. We need students to become literate in computer science and coding as well.”
Graff says students not only need those opportunities in school but outside the classroom as well. That’s why he’s offering specialized summer camps this June and July.
One of the tech-based camps will concentrate on coding and computer science, teaching algorithms and offering do-it-yourself electronics.
“The students will be given a kit and it's all custom made, and they will put it all together,” Graff said. “They will be able to customize it to whatever end they see fit, and we will be able to actually 3D print custom parts for it. All the coding background is to give them the skills to make that electronic machine work.”
One of the other camps is appropriately titled Hack-A-Drone.
“Hack-A-Drone is a really interesting camp in that you give the students a perfectly good store-bought in-the-box drone, and you open it up and they never fly it,” Graff said. “They rip it apart, strategically take the components out and take all of those electronics and use it in a quadcopter frame that they 3D design and 3D print. All the while, they are also learning to code drones, they are learning about the laws that govern drone flight, UAV flight. They also learn about the principles of flight - so pitch, roll and yaw.”
There’s even a camp for video game design and virtual reality.
“That camps focus is on an overview of how to build a video game using Unity and Unreal Engine, and then we do a lot of exploration with virtual reality,” Graff said. “The students actually get their own virtual reality headset that they will use at the camp, and then they actually go home with that virtual reality headset.”
The summer camps are geared toward teens, but Graff says there are plenty of workshops for adults as well. He also offers free studio time every Saturday from Noon to 3 p.m. (or by appointment) when the public is invited to come to use the 3D printer or virtual reality rig.
“We open up the space for people to come in and kind of test and explore and experience what we have to offer without any kind of monetary constraints,” Graff said. “The first weekend in June is the last open studio that will be free of charge, but then in June, we will be doing workshops. So you can still come to the open studio for free, but we encourage people to participate in the one to three-hour workshops.”
For more on Formulating Digital Solutions, click here.
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