Welding students from Ashwaubenon High School show off custom built steel snowflakes they made for the NEW Zoo, November 25, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The skills of Ashwaubenon welding students will be on full display at the NEW Zoo this holiday season.
The zoo partnered with Ashwaubenon High School to get the students from Jonathan Butler’s manufacturing/welding class to design and fabricate a collection of giant custom steel snowflakes.
The project, completed over several weeks, challenged students to take an idea from concept to completion, requiring design planning, technical skills, teamwork and precision metal fabrication. Each snowflake is a unique, large-scale steel structure created entirely by students, showcasing their advanced abilities in welding, plasma cutting, fabrication, measurement and safe shop practices.
On Tuesday, the snowflakes were shipped off to the NEW Zoo.
“I thought this was a great experience for the students. It gives them something that’s actually real-world, right? It gives them an opportunity to get a feel for an actual manufacturing shop and shows them what it’s like to work in the real world on these real projects and then on top of that, shows them what they can do with some of the skills that they learn inside of our classes,” Butler said.
All the metal used for the project was donated.
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