The Castle Production Lab celebrates its third year being open at Norwin High School. The lab is located near the main office by the library. The Castle Production Lab room has lots of printing equipment and computers to complete the jobs.
“The CPL (Castle Production Lab) is an inclusive print shop where students take orders and design different print products,” said special education teacher and head of the lab, Mrs. Malissa Cheplick. “We want to grow the business. In addition to paper products, we are learning to make sublimation products which will expand our product line. We want to be able to sell all kinds of Norwin merchandise to the district and community.”
Teachers and students can request print jobs from posters, to signs, to stickers, to banners, to business cards and more. Students in the Production Lab design the projects using Canva and once the proof is approved, they print the job in house.
“Orders come from teachers and the community,” Cheplick. “We have a website where people order products and then our student designers create, print, and deliver the orders. For example, last year we made personalized graduation banners for our seniors. We have the ability to print photo products, stickers, banners, and any other personalized paper items you can think of.”
For example, In October, the Castle Production Lab made the automated external defibrillator (AED) posters. The posters show all the AED units locations in the Norwin campus, the poster can be found in pretty much all classrooms in the high school and was a creative design by Castle Production Lab worker Michael Makay (11).
Students work in the Lab during scheduled class time or a study hall or free period.
“We provide fun and useful products and designs for our school and our community,” said a member of the Castle Production Lab, Zoe Kieffer (12).
The Lab provides affordable costs for the products and uses the money to keep the Lab updated and buy new equipment or software.
”I am a co-teacher and work closely with Mrs. Swick,” said Cheplick. “Together we oversee daily activities, working closely with the students who are scheduled in the CPL throughout the day.”
Students enjoy working in the lab getting real-world experience and using their creativity.
“You get to be creative,” said a member of the Castle Production Lab, Jacob Chen (12)
Cheplick added, “We wanted to provide authentic business/graphic design experiences for all students.”
