Creating a Design Studio in a Secondary School

Over the last three years I have been back in the classroom at the local secondary school teaching students from years 7 – 13 with a focus on Digital Technologies and, increasingly, digital fabrication. I have worked to redesign the courses to include a much wider range of technical skills and to build students towards running their own projects using the same student-directed approach I have used in previous schools. Alongside the Design courses were the senior “Practical Computing” courses which have historically been self-paced workbook driven courses about spreadsheets, word processing, and other similar applications.

The “traditional computer room” often found in schools was not able to support the type of course I was developing and school budgets can be finicky at the best of times so a process of incremental changes were proposed and implemented over the years. This article provides an overview of changes that were kept sustainable for the school and how spaces had to adapt to changing needs in the students, the teacher, and the course design.

Course Overviews

These are the course overviews for the senior Product Design courses that have been developed alongside the spaces (relevant to 2026). The course design has tended to lead the spaces and drive the design of the learning environment but sometimes there has been an element of desperate “get something in place” as the terms progressed.

The Proposals: 2024

Step 1 was to propose courses and an overall direction that demonstrated a tangible benefit to students and their learning. In 2024 the following were proposed as a direction for Digital Technologies:

New senior courses that allowed students to explore projects and technical skills based on areas of personal interest. These were called “Product Design” but encompass: design process, digital software, and digital fabrication opportunities.
Create a flexible ‘maker space’ time each week that is accessible to all students and teachers across the school and provide support for a wider range of courses. The intent is to create a Design Studio for students to complete projects with access to tools as needed.
A redesign of the small computer space used for Practical Computing courses to better accommodate different types of activities (and upgrade the plastic furniture to something more ergonomic)
The purchase of laptops to allow more flexible use of the new space and courses
An asset list of digital fabrication tools to facilitate student projects as they developed. This was intended to be a long term list that included emerging technologies as well as building up existing tools
Develop connections with community providers who could support students in a wider way. Initially this included similar existing makerspaces: the CCC Libraries, and The Kind Foundation 4C Centre.

Development Timeline

2024

The laser cutter in the workshop was set up and integrated into senior courses.
The 3D printer was uograded and second new printer added to Makerspace.
The first iteration of the Product Design course implemented at Year 11.
Junior courses all redesigned to include a wider range of fundamental technical skills.
The small computer room was set up to include the 3D printers and vinyl cutter.

2025

Year 12 Product Design course implemented.
New laptops purchased using finances from a combination of school budgets and external grants.
A non-functional. open layout ‘room’ next to the computer room was reconfigured to provide a flexible work space for Product Design students. This also doubled as a social space for students during breaks.
Proposed an upgrade to the 12 year old desktop computers in the primary computer room to better support technologies such as 3D modeling and animation, Computer Aided Design, and video editing.

2026

Product Design and junior Digital Technologies courses timetabled into the makerspace. This forced all classes to use the laptops and created issues around space and battery use.
New desktops purchased but not set up in the primary computer room as intended.
Proposed a second dedicated computer lab in the open space next to the makerspace to utilise the new desktop computers.
Partitions and desks set up to create a more enclosed classroom space. A door was added later to make the space more secure.
Desktop computers set up and all junior Digital Technologies, Product Design and Practical Computing courses moved into this new space.
New laser cutter purchased
Virtual Reality desktop added to the classroom. Support from the CCC Libraries and the Stepping Stone Trust
A 3D scanner made available to students via the CCC Libraries

Notable Outcomes

Reassuringly the beneficial outcomes from redesigning these spaces have been those that were expected and part of the original proposal.

Senior students are engaging in projects that combine digital design and fabrication.
Students from other subject areas are using the tools in the makerspace.
Business students are now using the spaces flexibly and producing more physical products than perishable products for sale.
Students are starting to take responsibility for safety in the space and showing each other how the tools are used.
Students now freely move between the computer and maker spaces as required by their projects.
Engagement with other providers and community support has been developing (notably: CCC Libraries, 4C Centre, Stepping Stone Trust, Recycle A Device)
The dark rings under my eyes have become larger than expected.