Eric Carlson

Eric Carlson is a full-time K-12 art and design teacher at Kelliher Public School. He runs a fabrication arts lab (Fab Lab makerspace) within the school, operating 3D printers, a CNC laser cutter, a CNC plasma cutter, a mill, virtual reality machine, and a vinyl cutter.  The Kelliher School Fab Lab won the Profiles in Excellence award in 2017 from the Minnesota Rural Education Association (MREA) and Eric was a semifinalist for Teacher of the Year in Minnesota in 2018.  Eric has a passion for the intersection of art and technology, especially when it fosters students’ innate creativity.  He is a teaching coach at Kelliher and uses the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) framework, guiding instructors on experiential learning best practices and higher order thinking outcomes. 

In October 2018, Eric gave a TEDx talk in Bemidji Minnesota about makerspaces in the classroom that can be watched online, and he is currently working on writing a pair of books about his program: "The Maker Mindset" on the pedagogy and philosophy of making, and "The Maker Toolkit" that outlines his curriculum and lesson plans that he uses in the classroom.