Mastic Beach, NY - April 18, 2016 - Recently, students enrolled in Eric Sorensen’s technology classes at William Paca Middle School were able to create and design objects to be printed on a 3D printer. With assistance from William Paca librarian Roseann Magrane who secured the printer on loan from Eastern Suffolk BOCES, students created items using Autodesk, software that is used in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries.

“The goal was for students to learn Autodesk and create something tangible out of nothing,” said Mr. Sorensen. “This fun STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) project was completed by the students by putting their math, logic and problem-solving skills to good use.”

Jayson McLafferty, a seventh grader, said that he was surprised to see that algebra, geometry, symmetry and scaling all went into the project. He said that enjoyed being creative and thinking of his own idea – a peg board. Some of the projects that the students created were a water bottle complete with a straw, a peg board, a cable cover faceplate and a toy block.