The Daniels Building is constantly full of students, but on November 12 the crowd was a bit younger than usual.

Alan Robertson, a grade three teacher from Leslieville Junior Public School, brought his class of 22 children to One Spadina for a day of learning about buildings and the people who design them.

The trip was related to the students' science curriculum. "We've been studying the topic of strong and stable structures," Robertson says. "We try to link curriculum to the real world as much as possible."

The youngsters met a pair of undergraduate students, Misha Gliwny and Chris Kang, who showed them some examples of kinetic architecture that they had developed as part of a studio taught by digital fabrication coordinator Nicholas Hoban. Later, the group visited the laser cutter lab, where Hamed Nadi, a work-study student, demonstrated the equipment by cutting keychains for the elementary schoolers to take home with them.

Some of Alan Robertson's grade three students with Daniels Faculty external relations and outreach manager Nene Brode.

Later, the class visited the Daniels Faculty's 3D printers, where digital fabrication technologist Paul Kozak introduced them to 3D-printed models. There was a hands-on workshop where the kids learned to build their own city blocks out of styrofoam, and then the outing ended with a visit to New Circadia, the cavelike art installation in the Daniels Building's new Architecture and Design Gallery.

"They had an amazing time. A number of them have told their parents they really want to go back to the New Circadia exhibit," Robertson says. "Some of the children have become more interested in 3D printing. Some have signed up for 3D printing workshops with the public library."

Robertson's students wrote notes of thanks to the Faculty. Here are a few of them: