名古屋市 中学校キャリア教育のものづくり授業プログラム

Digital fabrication is often seen as making things with cutting-edge technology. VUILD, however, regards digital fabrication machines as one of many tools for turning ideas into form. What society will need going forward are foundational working skills and non-cognitive abilities, such as creativity, the ability to take action, and the communication skills to share ideas with others. This class therefore positions the ShopBot as "a tool for turning ideas into form," and was designed as a workshop in which students come up with ideas, give them shape, and present them in a short time.

The two-day, six-period class was designed in full, including preparatory videos, worksheets, and the flow of each session. In fiscal 2024, it ran across all three terms at Meiho Junior High School. In fiscal 2025, it moved to Meinan Junior High School in collaboration with morimobi, a mobile digital woodworking studio run by AndForest in Okazaki, Aichi. On the day, a staff member was assigned to each group, and fabrication data was prepared from the students' ideas between classes, so that every group could reach the point of making within two days.

The class begins with students touching logs and leaves and comparing the scents of hinoki cypress and cedar. After watching a ShopBot demonstration, they sketch ideas using "when, where, and for whom" as cues, turning problems and sources of fun into concrete scenes. When discussions stall, staff broaden the ideas through association games and model them on the spot. On the second day, each team's parts are cut on the ShopBot (about five minutes per team) and finished. Finally, students organize on a worksheet why they chose their design and who it is for, and present it with its users in mind.

As a career education class, time for dialogue with adults is also valued. In fiscal 2025, AndForest staff talked about their own work and ways of working, and after the presentations, staff joined each group to look back on the works and ideas with the students.

In Career Time, a theme such as welfare or disaster preparedness is set for each term, and the questions in the workshop are adapted to that theme. As a result, even under the same theme of "things that make school more fun," the direction of the ideas shifts slightly from term to term. Every work is a new product proposed by students, starting from problems they found in their own school.