Survey results are in & Instructor Kit winner announced!

First, we would like to thank everyone who participated in our Mastercam Curriculum Survey. Your collective insight helps us better develop our Mastercam Training Solutions.

Second, congratulations are in order! Our trusty go-to random number generator at random.org picked lucky number 117 which belonged to:

Bill Bailey of the Florida Institute of Technology 

Bill will be receiving a Mastercam X6 Instructor Kit for Mill & Lathe! ($225 value!)

But wait! There is something in this post for the rest of you too! We thought we’d share a handful of the more interesting survey results with our readers: 

- Over half of you were running Mastercam X5 at the time of the survey:

- In the next question, 61% of you said you are going to move to X6, and 38% said you haven’t decided just yet.

- Nearly 30% reported enrolment in the 16-20 student range for Mastercam related classes and a total of 61% with class sizes consisting of more than 10 students.

- Collectively, the general perception is that students are most willing to adopt online based training materials (and/or eBooks), followed by faculty and lastly, school boards – nothing too surprising here. It does point to a significant bottom-up demand for such materials though.

- Interestingly, another question asking what you thought the benefits and drawbacks of using eBooks in your Mastercam classes led to a lot of “do not know” responses, or worse – misinformation about the technology. We will definitely address this further in a future post!

- A massive 69% of you weren’t aware that In-House Solutions offers eBooks for Mastercam X4, X5 and X6. If you find yourself in that lot, why not take a look?

- Finally, a whopping 95+% of you said you would subscribe to a  monthly Mastercam community-focused newsletter that would notify you of new releases, run contests, promotions, showcase other schools, students’ projects, highlight hot discussion topics and more. Well you’re in luck! We’re in the process of starting up a brand new newsletter for all of the above. Make sure you’ll get it by signing up here!

Thanks again for taking the time to give us your input, and congratulations once more to Bill Bailey!

The Education Team
@In-House Solutions

Mastercam X6 hits the streets, our Training Solutions in toe!

Today, CNC Software (the developers of Mastercam) released the latest version of Mastercam as a download for current customers (full physical product is due sometime in the coming weeks).

We at In-House Solutions are happy to announce our launch titles for X6 as well. Available today, through our sister site www.emastercam.com (or by phone: 800-527-5517) are the following titles from the Training Tutorial Series: Mill Level 1, Mill Level 3, Lathe, Solids and Intro to Multiaxis.

In addition to the new X6 features covered, we are excited to announce that we are expanding the Training Tutorial Series offered in metric units. We have been publishing metric versions of our books since X3, adding to our library with each release. With X6, we are aiming for virtually every imperial title within the series to have a metric counterpart!

We’ll be posting updates here as new titles become available. For now, head to the store to see what’s new!

Best regards,

The Educational Team
@ In-House Solutions

Elwood Educates the East with Mastercam

You may recall seeing the name in a previous blog post – Bruce King is an instructor at Elwood Regional High. A few months back, his school won the draw for the Mastercam X5 CNC Curriculum Sit License.

We decided to touch base with Bruce to see what else his students are up to.

Seen here, Mark Murdoch, a level II student in Design and Fabrication, inserts a blank to mill a cribbage board he designed in class.

Here we see the finished product.

We’ll have to check in next term to see how Bruce integrates the CNC Curriculum into his classes. For more information on the CNC Curriculum, grab the brochure.

Elwood Regional High School is located in Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The school has a long history of technology use and was the first school in the province to offer a Flexible Manufacturing Course which included CAD/CAM training for its students. Since then Elwood has continued this tradition and now offers a wide range of Skilled Trades and Technology courses.

We thank Bruce for taking the time to share a little with us. Has your class just finished up some neat projects? Drop us a line – we’d love to feature their work!

All good signs point to creativity!

It’s a good feeling when creativity strikes; an even better one when you can see the idea materialize! Thanks to the guidance from Mastercam Teacher Lloyd Bloomfield and a power-duo of design and manufacturing software, one student from Harry Ainlay High School in Edmonton Alberta, Canada got to revel in that satisfaction.

See the Design sign in action!

 

Whether the sign for the Design Studies department was in need of replacing or not was never the question – it was getting an upgrade regardless! The back-board and gears were cut using Mastercam X5 with their CAMTECH CNC Router.

In addition to the router, the shop also boasts a Mori Seiki Mill for other projects. Lloyd has been at the helm of the manufacturing program for 11 years now and has been a Mastercam user for 14. When it comes to choosing software and curriculum, this is what he has to say:

With In-House Solutions’ training material and an easy to learn software solution like Mastercam, my students are more productive when it comes to creating fun, interesting projects year after year.        

We would like to thank Lloyd and his students for sharing this fun project with us! If your school is working on a neat project involving Mastercam, we would love to hear from you! Drop us a line at education@inhousesolutions.com or find us on twitter @IHS_education.

If you are looking for Mastercam curriculum for your program, be sure to check out www.emastercam.com/store.

We have a winner! – Congratulations are in order…

Thank you to all that participated in our contest. We are excited to announce the winner of the Mastercam CNC Curriculum Site License, but first, a closer look at what was won!

 

• Ten projects to choose from, over 880 pages of content
• Detailed instructions from design to machined part
• Binder format with photocopy rights to supply your class

 

The Mastercam X5 CNC Curriculum is especially designed for high school level institutions looking to introduce their students to the world of manufacturing, in a fun and engaging way. For more information, check out this link or download the flyer.

Today we are happy to announce that Bruce King of Elwood Regional high School in Newfoundland, Canada is the winner of the CNC Curriculum.

Congratulations, Bruce! To the rest, be sure to watch out for our next contest! We look forward to following up with Bruce and his students to see what creative projects they can cook up!

Join In-House Solutions at the 2011 ITEEA conference!

In-House Solutions will be exhibiting at the 73rd annual ITEEA Conference this coming week. If you are unaware, the ITEEA is the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. Their mission is to promote technological literacy for all by supporting the teaching of technology and promoting the professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits.

Open to all educators, this year’s conference will be held in at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN from March 24th-26th. The tagline this year is “Preparing the Stem Workforce: The Next Generation”. For more information on sessions that will be held, check out the conference guide.

Kim Faustini will be representing In-House Solutions at the conference along with our Mastercam X5 Training Solutions. She can be found in the Mastercam booth #209, Thursday & Friday (24th & 25th). Be sure to drop by and say hi!

Sneak peek at our Mastercam X5 Training Solutions!

The latest release of Mastercam is nearly upon us and a sneak peek of our Mastercam X5 Training Solutions is even closer. (See below!) We have a snippet of a few books for you to feast your eyes on. Expect a full assortment of X5 books ready for the software’s launch!

 
Want a little more? Either comment on this post or on twitter @IHS_education with “I want Mastercam X5 Training Solutions” and we’ll send out a FREE excerpt from one of our new titles!

Stay tuned – this blog is about to get all sorts of busy. It’s your place to stay on top of what’s new in Mastercam X5 Education!