Scott Pearl, a Del Val wood shop and engineering teacher, has incorporated real-world experience in woodworking and designing for his classes. This experience provides effective strategies for students to learn to efficiently design and build creations. 

Last year, Pearl’s classes created a cutting board for Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse. The cutting board is currently used for both social media and decoration.

This project required not only greater woodworking skills from his students, but also a good work ethic and a dedication to creating excellent designs.

The process of building this item began with the design process. Pearl teaches a design and materials processing class, which creates designs for the items. He typically has students come up with nine ideas initially, then narrow them down to three main designs. This helps increase students’s problem-solving skills.

“We weigh the pros and cons [of each idea], then get feedback from the customer or the client and then move forward with the development of it,” Pearl said.

Next, the woodworking process took place, and the cutting board was created. The logo creation process also played an important role in the development of the cutting board.

Bobolink Bakehouse and Dairy was satisfied with the finished product, which turned out great. Currently, Pearl is looking into potentially creating other items for local businesses.

Del Val offers excellent materials and machines for woodworking and design, such as a CNC machine, advanced computer programs and a laser.

“We’re capable of producing quality work and part of the goal is just to get it out there so the community can start to see it,” Pearl said.

He believes that it is important for students to have experience designing and creating items for real-life scenarios.

Del Val has a variety of different design and wood shop classes, which are available for students to take next year.

“It’s kind of driven me into what I want to do after high school,” said Luke Hoffman, a senior who has taken both wood shop and design classes.

Many students have expressed their continued appreciation for the wood shop and design programs at Del Val.

“This is going to be something I miss a lot going forward,” said Jake Hoffman, a senior, who has taken four years of wood shop classes.