This semester has been filled with festivities within the Nettleton School District, as they are celebrating 125 years of educating the Jonesboro community.

EAST at Nettleton STEAM joined in on the celebrations by using one of their favorite pieces of EAST technology: their laser cutter!

“Our high school asked each school in the district to submit something for a 125th Anniversary time capsule,” said Tiffany Feild, the facilitator of EAST at Nettleton STEAM. “ I immediately thought of using the laser cutter or 3D printer to make something unique. I posed the idea to my students and several of them got started. Xander Leasure, a 5th grade EAST student, was eager to create something and since his design was the most complete, we decided to use the design he started and then collaborate to get it completed.”

Xander’s design included many elements of what makes Nettleton STEAM so unique: with tributes to the school’s principal of providing a 100% project based learning environment and some of EAST at Nettleton STEAM’s favorite projects.

“We all brainstormed and collaborated to choose the symbols that represent us the most and work on the placement of the designs,” Feild said. “We wanted to include enough so that it reflects our school but the designs also needed to be sized large enough to be easily read on the wooden plaque.”

The project was spearheaded by Xander and classmate Ford Smith, who both agree that the laser cutter is one of their favorite resources to use in EAST.

“We love using the laser cutter!” The students said. “One of our favorite parts of the laser cutter is how easy it is to cut the materials into the shape you want.”

On top of celebrating the school district’s history, EAST at Nettleton STEAM is looking to make some of their own - by using their 3D printer and laser cutter to create wax worm pods - to prove that not even the sky is the limit for EAST students.

“Arkansas State [University] is sending these wax worms to space so we may even laser cut the pieces they use for the microgravity experiment,” the students said. “It's going to be really cool to have something we laser cut actually go into space!”