AHS Students Show Off Metal Fabrication Skills in Lamp Designing Contest

Arrowhead’s metal fabrication class recently participated in a school-wide lamp design contest. Students participating in this contest are from the metal fabrications class taught by Anthony Christian.

Of the 25 students participating, the winners this year are AHS junior Justin Schultz and AHS senior John McBroom. Both winners will receive $20 gift cards to Fleet Farm or Cabela’s.

Students were introduced to this contest at the end of March and finished their products Friday, May 25.

This is the first year Christian had his students participate in a lamp making contest, and he thinks his students excelled.

“They were presented with an open ended problem, they brainstormed, researched, designed, fabricated, and finished the entire solution,” says Christian. “Their hard work paid off, and came up with some very unique products.”

Lamps were on display in the North Campus Library Lab B all day Tuesday, May 29 and Wednesday, May 30.

Students decided what they wanted to be judged on, and Christian had AHS staff vote on their favorite lamp.

Christian says, “No experience or expertise [was] needed [to vote]. The students decided on what they wanted to be judged on. They asked [staff] to ​please vote for the one that is the most creative or unique and vote for the one that is the most professional or highest quality. Most are made of mild steel, some students found scrap items that to some are garbage, but the students up-cycled them into something useful.”

McBroom says, “I do not plan on pursuing a career in welding, however, I will consider it as a hobby.”

AHS senior Charles Legler says, “The finished product of my lamp could be improved, everything could be improved. Tighter tolerances, better finish. I plan on going into mechanical/manufacturing engineering so the theory of welding and the idea behind welding is going to be prevalent in my career.”

Heidi Hamilton, an AHS special education teacher, participated as a staff judge for the lamp contest.

“I was most impressed with the creativity and quality of the lamps. I was looking for overall craftsmanship and uniqueness. Did the lamp catch my eye and was it original? I was really looking for originality. This project provided the perfect opportunity for students to express their creativity and skill. Hopefully, this project even helped students decide what career or hobby they would like to pursue in the future,” says Hamilton.

After the contest, each student took their lamp home.

AHS senior Jake Zolinski says, “For my lamp, I felt very well with the way it had turned out. The design was simple enough to where it could be completed on time, yet still hold true to be unique and different from the others in the class. I somewhat will be in a career that will use different aspects that were involved in this, such as the designing process. I’m going more on the side of mechanical engineering, rather than a manufacturing job.”