I’m very excited that we are replacing the individual desks in one of the classrooms in which I teach physics with tables. I’m anticipating much more effective collaboration among students with the tables.
However, one of my projects for this summer was to build something that would discourage “collaboration” during exams. So, I build some very simple whiteboard holders that can serve that function as well as, well, hold whiteboards for display.
I cut 24 holders from an eight foot long 4″ x 4″ using a chop saw. I then used a table saw to cut a kerf in the middle of each block just slightly wider than a whiteboard is thick and almost 2″ deep. (I actually cut the 4″ x 4″ into 2′ sections, cut the kerf in the 2′ sections, and then chopped them into 4″ blocks to be more efficient.) Finally, I cleaned up the rough edges with a belt sander. It only took a couple of hours to make enough holders for 36 whiteboards (a set of 12 for each of our three physics classrooms). Here are two individual blocks to illustrate how they are constructed:
Here they are holding a whiteboard:
One summer project completed; many more to go!