After attending an FCSN-hosted event and noticing attendees working with crafts, rising senior Ravi Prabhune had the idea to use his knowledge of crafting and start a series of courses that teach students how to create their own projects through woodworking and 3D printing. Because this course series was Ravi’s original idea, he asked FCSN for permission and then his family for advice and how to approach the task. He was able to launch his course successfully after receiving FCSN’s approval.

Since he was a child, Ravi knew that crafting was his passion. “I believe I’m a maker at heart,” he said. “I’ve always loved hands-on activities and crafts.” His passion started with basic crafts such as origami and cardboard crafts and eventually intricate creations. He has even patented a design for an original invention using the same software that he teaches students with.

Ravi’s class helps students practice woodworking and 3D printing by making small crafts such as fidget toys, keychains, and toolboxes. “Hands-on activities are helpful and important for many neurodiverse children, and hand activities provide deep, heavy pressure that stimulate muscles and joints,” Ravi said, explaining the inspiration for the course. During the class, Ravi and a team of assistant teachers aid the students in using tools and machinery and customizing the toys that they make. “It was wonderful to see how all the kids personalized the projects to their liking—be it names, text, characters, photos, or landscapes—and made the projects their own,” he said.

The process was not without challenges, though. Ravi remembers having to slow down the teaching and repeat the content in order to keep students active. “It was important to get them engaged by giving them more specific guidance in smaller steps, acknowledging their accomplishments by giving them positive feedback on an activity done well, addressing them by name to establish a personal connection, and getting help from amazing volunteers as appropriate,” he said. 

Although there were a number of hurdles in the beginning, Ravi was glad that the students enjoyed the class, and he hopes that he has inspired them to pursue these activities for a lifetime. “It was great to see how some of the students took the initiative to learn and explore the tools and techniques on their own before coming to the next class, and that also meant they understood what I was teaching,” he said, explaining the joy of seeing students actively learning and showing interest in the contents of the class. One particular memory of his is seeing one of his students adapt to the situation at hand; the student resized and adapted a Godzilla image to create a stencil cutout using a Cricut machine, and then he used that stencil to paint a Godzilla onto his project.

Ravi has stated that volunteering at FCSN had been rewarding and meaningful, concluding that the experience had made him a better person overall. In the future, he plans to continue assisting students at FCSN and start some new virtual classes involving more 3D printing as well as video editing. To other people who are interested in teaching a class like he did, Ravi recommends taking the class slow and communicating well, but ultimately finding a passion first. “I would suggest considering what you are passionate about, love to do, and then think about how the activities can be adapted to suit the students with special needs,” he says.