Before the holiday break, students from Herricks’ Searingtown School and Herricks High School partnered for a cross-grade engineering project that brought creativity, collaboration and real-world design skills into the classroom.
High school students in Mr. Liguori’s design and drawing course worked with fourth-grade students from Searingtown School in Ms. Utz’s class to design and create personalized keychains using the engineering design process.
The project emphasized the Herricks 6 Cs – compassion, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and confidence. At Herricks High School, students are developing advanced 3D design skills using programs such as TinkerCAD, SolidWorks and Fusion 360.
After learning how to convert 2D images into 3D objects, the students applied their skills by acting as designers for the fourth graders, who served as clients.
Through a shared digital design space, students exchanged feedback, revised designs and problem-solved together until the final products were ready for 3D printing.
Throughout the collaboration, students demonstrated strong communication and compassion by listening to ideas, asking clarifying questions and supporting one another’s creativity.
High school students used critical thinking to translate ideas into functional, printable designs, while fourth graders gained confidence seeing their concepts become tangible products.
The project concluded with the presentation of the 3D-printed keychains as holiday gifts, providing a meaningful and memorable way for students to connect across grade levels while applying engineering and design skills.
