This term, students in Stage 4 have been developing their skills in computer-aided design (CAD). To think and act like a designer they have been working on evaluating existing products to figure out how something goes from just being a product to something iconic such as the Volkswagen Beetle or the iPhone.
Students have started designing in 3D. They have been sketching ideas, getting feedback and are now working Autodesk Tinkercad to design a plastic ‘Mech’ character that you might find in a board game or a toy from a video game. There is a lot to learn; how to create objects, put them together, cut out pieces and shape things using polygons. As you can see here, there’s quite a lot of maths as well as creativity needed. Most of all, they have been improving their designs by working together in groups to learn ‘need to know’ skills to make their ideas a reality – and to challenge themselves to add to those skills even when it gets hard or frustrating.
To turn their ideas into reality, the students unboxed and set up our new Lulzbot 3D printer. This meant figuring out how it worked including the software that controls the temperature of the print head and the base plate which renders the design in polymer plastic. It was great to see them working together to set it up and get their designs from their laptops to the machine.
The students have quickly adapted to working with our Learning Management System (LMS) and will be completing this work towards the end of term, printing their own designs and watching the machine build the final product. They have set up a print station in the classroom and I suspect they will make many more things that I’ve asked them to do as the year rolls on.
Next term, they will be learning about coding and each student will be printing a case for their new BBC Microbit computer, which they will program to create more solutions to design problems. It has been great to see them grow this term; taking on feedback from the LMS, submitting work, forming groups online and sharing ideas and resources to help each other turn their design ideas into reality.
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