NJSTEM Month: Faculty Sticker Making Workshop

Delran Schools staff members were invited into the Fab Lab as part of NJ STEM Month to design and create their own stickers. On Thursday, March 20, staff were invited to work in the Delran FabLab to create custom designs for the approaching vinyl sticker event. Using Corel Draw software, staff would utilize the basics of the program to create designs, learning about vector editing and other techniques they would need to apply for their sticker designs for a successful print the following Monday.

Two sessions were led by Mary Jo Hutchinson (Supervisor and Co-Coordinator of STEM Initiatives) and Shaun Deloche (FabLab manager and STEM teacher) on Monday, March 24 for staff members from all Delran schools, including Superintendent Dr. Della Vecchia. During these sessions, staff could use premade sticker designs or their custom designs from the previous week to create their own vinyl sticker.

Experienced STEMbassadors were available to teach their teachers various techniques for creating their stickers. STEMbassadors Izzy D. and Jackson W. were observed working on intricate “weeding,” or the process of removing the unwanted vinyl, on a design featuring book pages and lettering. Josiah H. was also hands-on with weeding and transferring stickers with staff members. These students helped staff with a variety of tools, such as vinyl weeding tools, vinyl application tools, and vinyl tweezers. “[STEMbassadors] Josiah and Desmond were very helpful in helping me weed, tape, and finalize my product,” Social Studies teacher Jason Pope commented.

Mental Health Counselor Craig Nussbaum shared:

“I love my new door sign! My STEMbassador (Izzy) was fantastic as well. She was so helpful and turns out wants to get into a related field to my own, so good networking opportunity for her. It was a great event and showed me an area of the school that I didn’t know much about.”

First-year STEMbassador Desmond S. assisted many staff members with applying the transfer paper and how to carefully cut it to reuse pieces of transfer paper for smaller designs. When helping me with my designs, he discussed his experience in the Delran STEM program, from participating in STEAM Camp to becoming a high school STEMbassador and helping his community. High school students who are interested in volunteering for STEAM Camp are encouraged to apply, especially if they are interested in pursuing a STEM career or working with children. More information about STEAM Camp and the FabLab Academy for high school volunteers and participants in grades 2 through 8 can be found here.

Paul Maraldo (FabLab Manager and STEM teacher) led a Corel Draw session for STEMbassadors learning about Corel participated in his session to create their own stickers on Monday as well. Several STEMbassadors, such as Tyler G. and Alex A., shared their sticker designs with the DelranSTEM team, showing their hobbies and interests with their creations as well as discussing the skills they utilized to make their designs in Corel Draw.

The FabLab currently has two machines capable of vinyl cutting. The machine used in this event, the Camm-1, was part of the original lab setup. The Titan 3 vinyl cutter was part of a previous Lockheed Martin Community Grant.  That grant also included other resources, such as laptops to serve more students in the lab, an additional desktop to run the Titan 3, and CorelDraw licenses for more students to learn the skills and gain competencies in 2-D design and fabrication. Staff have also used this equipment in previous workshops, such as creating “Bear Flair” in 2022 and 2023.

The products used for the vinyl sticker workshop were provided through a STEM Month Mini-Grant from the NJ STEM Pathways Network. NJ STEM Month is co-hosted by the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network and the Research & Development Council of New Jersey; the NJSPN also oversees eight STEM ecosystems, including DelranSTEM. 

Thank you to all of our STEMbassadors who volunteered their time to help their teachers in the lab. Much gratitude was also expressed by participants to the DelranSTEM teachers and coordinators for leading the event and helping bring their ideas to life. The event brought the community together, with staff and students sharing their learning to help each other create vinyl stickers.

Want to know what’s next with DelranSTEM? STEAM Camp registration is open until May 26, and our annual Delran STEM Fair will be on Monday, May 19. Follow us on X and Instagram, and check out our events page for more information. We hope to see you soon!