A Makerbot 3D printer has arrived in our classroom thanks to Mr Jared Bennett and the 21 Century Fluencies department. Needless to say it has been a learning experience.
Our greatest challenge has been finding online design tools that will run on our XP School Connect computers. Unfortunately, none of the options recommended by Thingiverse worked well in our Lab. My daughter, Hannah, who is in the first year of a science degree, was home for reading week and came to Dundas Central for the day to help find a solution to our problem. She figured out that our best option would be Tinkercad but that we would need to run it on a different operating system than XP. She managed to design and print (after a few false starts) using her Windows 8 laptop. Luckily for us we had recently received a shipment from Computers for Schools that contained 6 VISTA computers. My grade 7 students removed the Windows XP stand alones from my class and replaced them with VISTAs. The library also has 6 VISTA stand alones thanks to the efforts of Mr Bell, so we now have 12 computers available for 3D design.
It has taken us some time to get a successful design. We printed several of the default designs just to see how the printer works and learned that we must not shake nor bump the counter when printing.
Effort 1: messy blob
Effort 2: a fish that shot off the printer when the counter was bumped which caused the object to shift and the printer to catch. Everyone now knows not to touch the counter or walk heavily on the floor when the printer is running.
Effort 3: We decided to make a simple rectangle just so we could complete a print. Success!
Effort 4: Abbi in grade 7 was the first student to successfully complete a design.
Effort 5: Sebastian in grade 7 leapt forward in design by creating a 2 piece print: a box with a lid.
Effort 6: Jacob printed a fish with an open mouth and we are now considering how to file down some rough edges.
Most students are working on very simple, almost 2 dimensional shapes for their first attempts.
Today something interesting happened. Jade mentioned that it would be cool if the lid to Sebastian's box could be hinged. She made the suggestion just as we were starting a lesson on sentence structure. We were a few minutes into the lesson when Carter's hand suddenly shot up. "I know how to design the hinge!" The whole time I was teaching, a number of students were considering the hinge design challenge in their heads. Those students launched into a discussion about hinges and design options. It was fascinating to watch and listen as they expressed their 3 dimensional design ideas in words. This was purposeful problem-solving so very, very different from the problems we typically present to them in school settings. It reminded me of the kinds of conversations a previous class used to have when they were designing an app. The level of engagement and meaningfulness is real; the conversation is not an artificial construct happening only because it has been mandated to happen. There is such an obvious difference!
Jamie in grade 7 moved the class forward in their understanding of the possibilities that a 3D printer allows by designing a car with axles and 4 wheels which he will print separately. The idea of creating something with moving parts hadn't occurred to anyone yet and I could once again see ideas sparking as students minds opened.
My grade 6 students are also engaged in the design and printing process. We had our first successful print of a student's name. A number of other designs are ready to go. Our discussions have centered on design and printing challenges. What is the best orientation for a print job? What supports need to be in place for a structure not to collapse during printing? What might have caused the errors in print jobs? Each time we encounter a problem, it is an opportunity to think deeply and visualize what might have happened. The thinking, problem-solving and immediate feedback of the process is rewarding. Students are spontaneously sketching and discussing design options, and attempting to predict and prevent print errors.
Set for tomorrow are a table, a cupcake, a curling rock and a robot. A group of boys will be printing mini hockey sticks and pucks to play with at nutrition break. I suppose this means that my meter sticks and masking tape rolls are now safe. :D
A side note:
While Hannah was visiting I asked her in front of the class what she wished she had learned in high school that would have been useful to know for university. Her answer: coding. She now has to code for physics and those students with backgrounds in coding are finding the process much easier.
Our greatest challenge has been finding online design tools that will run on our XP School Connect computers. Unfortunately, none of the options recommended by Thingiverse worked well in our Lab. My daughter, Hannah, who is in the first year of a science degree, was home for reading week and came to Dundas Central for the day to help find a solution to our problem. She figured out that our best option would be Tinkercad but that we would need to run it on a different operating system than XP. She managed to design and print (after a few false starts) using her Windows 8 laptop. Luckily for us we had recently received a shipment from Computers for Schools that contained 6 VISTA computers. My grade 7 students removed the Windows XP stand alones from my class and replaced them with VISTAs. The library also has 6 VISTA stand alones thanks to the efforts of Mr Bell, so we now have 12 computers available for 3D design.
It has taken us some time to get a successful design. We printed several of the default designs just to see how the printer works and learned that we must not shake nor bump the counter when printing.
Effort 1: messy blob
Effort 2: a fish that shot off the printer when the counter was bumped which caused the object to shift and the printer to catch. Everyone now knows not to touch the counter or walk heavily on the floor when the printer is running.
Effort 3: We decided to make a simple rectangle just so we could complete a print. Success!
Effort 4: Abbi in grade 7 was the first student to successfully complete a design.
Effort 5: Sebastian in grade 7 leapt forward in design by creating a 2 piece print: a box with a lid.
Effort 6: Jacob printed a fish with an open mouth and we are now considering how to file down some rough edges.
Most students are working on very simple, almost 2 dimensional shapes for their first attempts.
Today something interesting happened. Jade mentioned that it would be cool if the lid to Sebastian's box could be hinged. She made the suggestion just as we were starting a lesson on sentence structure. We were a few minutes into the lesson when Carter's hand suddenly shot up. "I know how to design the hinge!" The whole time I was teaching, a number of students were considering the hinge design challenge in their heads. Those students launched into a discussion about hinges and design options. It was fascinating to watch and listen as they expressed their 3 dimensional design ideas in words. This was purposeful problem-solving so very, very different from the problems we typically present to them in school settings. It reminded me of the kinds of conversations a previous class used to have when they were designing an app. The level of engagement and meaningfulness is real; the conversation is not an artificial construct happening only because it has been mandated to happen. There is such an obvious difference!
Jamie in grade 7 moved the class forward in their understanding of the possibilities that a 3D printer allows by designing a car with axles and 4 wheels which he will print separately. The idea of creating something with moving parts hadn't occurred to anyone yet and I could once again see ideas sparking as students minds opened.
My grade 6 students are also engaged in the design and printing process. We had our first successful print of a student's name. A number of other designs are ready to go. Our discussions have centered on design and printing challenges. What is the best orientation for a print job? What supports need to be in place for a structure not to collapse during printing? What might have caused the errors in print jobs? Each time we encounter a problem, it is an opportunity to think deeply and visualize what might have happened. The thinking, problem-solving and immediate feedback of the process is rewarding. Students are spontaneously sketching and discussing design options, and attempting to predict and prevent print errors.
Set for tomorrow are a table, a cupcake, a curling rock and a robot. A group of boys will be printing mini hockey sticks and pucks to play with at nutrition break. I suppose this means that my meter sticks and masking tape rolls are now safe. :D
A side note:
While Hannah was visiting I asked her in front of the class what she wished she had learned in high school that would have been useful to know for university. Her answer: coding. She now has to code for physics and those students with backgrounds in coding are finding the process much easier.
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