Members

ACE Leadership High School

Student using jointer.

Students and teachers from Albuquerque’s ACE Leadership High School have been coming to FUSE every week as part of their Work-Based-Learning Wednesdays program. The group works in the design lab and woodshop, designing and fabricating cutting boards, stools, and boxes. 

Even though ACE has its own woodshop that the students can use, there’s a benefit to coming to FUSE. “There are fewer distractions here, and we have a smaller group than we usually work with so we get more one-on-one time with the students,” says Brad Humble, the teacher leading the program. Gloria, one of the students in the program has enjoyed using the band and table saws. She wants to go into residential construction after high school. She says that she can use what she learns at FUSE at ACE, and ultimately in her career. 

ACE uses practical architecture, construction, and engineering projects to provide an innovative learning environment for students who have struggled in traditional high schools. In 2021, a group of ACE students worked with CNM Ingenuity (FUSE’s parent organization) to build a LEED Platinum house in the Barelas neighborhood. 

The Barelas build was one of the school’s first Work Based-Learning Wednesday projects. The initiative has since expanded to include a variety of guest speakers from industry, service-learning projects, and job shadowing opportunities that offer students academic credit for on-the-job experiences. 

CNM Ingenuity and ACE will continue to work together to provide students with the skills they need to pursue fulfilling careers that address the shortage of tradespeople in the region. 

Made at FUSE

Since FUSE first opened its doors in 2016, members have been using it to make things that enhance and beautify the community. Most of these are in Central New Mexico. Others are spread far and wide. They’re at art galleries, airports, museums, bars, and coffee shops. Take a look at the map to learn how many of the objects you admire every day were made right here at FUSE Makerspace. If you know of something that was made at FUSE that isn’t on the map, please let us know!

Albuquerque Public Schools Educators Build their STEAM Skills at FUSE

Leopold bench at Mark Armijo Academy in Albuqueruqe, NM.

The Career Connected Learning (CCL) Department at Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is funding its educators to take workshops and become members at FUSE. The goal of this endeavor is for teachers to learn skills that they can bring back to their schools, enhancing STEAM education throughout the district. More than 70 educators have taken advantage of the initiative. 

Inez Jacobs, a science and STEM educator at Mark Armijo Academy, is one of those educators. She has her students design and build Leopold benches as an applied way to teach blueprint reading and making precise measurements. “Students learn basic construction math essential to the building and construction industries,” says Inez. Once students have laid out their benches, Inez brings the materials to FUSE, where she cuts them on the chopsaw and engraves them with the CNC router. They then place the benches on their campus so that people have comfortable and attractive places to sit.

Shannyn Pareo incorporates FUSE into her pedagogy as well. Her entrepreneurship students at Desert Ridge Middle School create their own businesses. They design logos and come up with taglines. Shannyn prints stickers with their logos at FUSE, which “they stick in inappropriate places all over the school,” she admits.

In addition to entrepreneurship, Shannyn teaches math, CAD, manufacturing, web development, and coding. She started teaching Adobe Illustrator after learning it at FUSE. “It’s exciting for them to see how things are built…just to start being exposed to what the possibilities are at such a young age puts them ahead in design,” she says of her students. One, now at La Cueva High School, took what he learned in Shannyn’s class and is using it to design prosthetic limbs. Another is participating in a design challenge for which he’ll use a CNC router to create a picture frame that doubles as a nightlight with a hidden drawer. 

It isn’t just classroom teachers using FUSE. Christy Snell works in APS’ Educational Technology Department. She helps elementary schools throughout the district set up digital learning spaces and makerspaces. She has taken several FUSE workshops and reverse engineered them to be appropriate for elementary school aged children, using resources that teachers have available. After taking FUSE’s Intro to Screenprinting, she developed a similar activity using brayers and Scratch-Foam. For 3D printing, she first exposes students to things that have been made with a 3D printer. In subsequent grades, they start doing their own design with Tinkercad. Sometimes she’ll start with a design challenge, inviting the students to figure out what equipment they’ll need to use, whether it’s a laser, a 3D printer, or something else. “If this is something they like to do, then there are ways to move forward with that,” Snell says, talking about the opportunities students have to work at Explora’s X Studio, then FUSE, as they grow.

“The CCL is spreading STEAM skills across the curriculum from K through 12, so we made these FUSE workshops available to any teacher in the district who wanted to incorporate these skills into their classrooms,” says Amy Traylor, the CCL Program Development Specialist who made the funding available. “After they attend the training courses, we work to find them the equipment they need to share those skills with their students. The response to this initiative has been enormously positive and we really appreciate having an amazing community resource like FUSE as a partner to get teachers and students ready for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Retired Army Officer Finds a Home at FUSE

End Table

Tom Kight is a retired army officer and a FUSE member with a passion for woodworking. He nurtured his passion by taking classes at Santa Fe Community College after leaving his job at Intel in 2008. Santa Fe Community College provided Tom with exposure to outstanding mentors. In addition to making fine furniture, he works with his son Bill who runs a blacksmith shop, Kight Designs.

Tom is at FUSE often, working in both the wood and metal sides of the house. He’s made a Spanish bench, reception stands for Copper Lounge, and eye-catching tables, such as the one pictured above. He plans to eventually expand his own shop to include all the equipment he needs for his wide-ranging creations, but until then you’ll likely find him perched in front of the plasma table, staring intently at a computer in the design lab, or caked with sawdust in the woodshop. See more of his designs at www.woodirondesign.com.

Making a Walnut Coffee Table

FUSE Member Kevin Cohen building a coffee table.

Kevin Cohen wanted a new coffee table for his home but found prices too high, so he decided to make what he wanted himself. Kevin didn’t have any woodworking experience, so he took FUSE’s Intro to Woodshop to learn the basics and gain confidence using the machinery. Designing his own coffee table, he referenced other tables and received helpful insights from FUSE staff. Now that he’s made a coffee table that he’s happy with, Kevin hopes to make more furniture for his home. The coffee table was just the first step towards his goal of becoming a skilled furniture maker.