Art & Technology - 3D Design & Printing w/ the Prusa i3 MK3S, Tinkercad, & More

This week at camp, we explored the intersection of art and technology via 3D design and 3D printing. It went so much better than I expected for a few reasons I'll get into, but first, I need to say that this was a big week for me as an educator. 

Over the last two years, I've come to recognize the incredible value that the arts have in making STEM accessible to students from all backgrounds. It's hard to put the words to this, but it seems like the general way of things is that schooling extinguishes creativity. We divide our learning. Art and music are special subjects. Our students, younger than ever, think of themselves as "not math people" and "not science people."

My goal as a teacher, for this year and for all years to come, is to embrace creativity, to embrace art, and to embrace the holistic nature of learning.

I think I've been so excited (and anxious) for this week of camp because in my mind the 3D printer perfectly encapsulates this. I was so, so hopeful it wouldn't fall flat.

And it didn't!

We started off the week by introducing ourselves to Tinkercad, an incredible CAD website/software that is made specifically for people new to 3D digital design. The students explored the site, checking out designs that other people had made and getting started on some tinkering.

The majority of our time this week was spent on design challenges. The students really enjoyed the open-ended nature of these. The prompts gave them structure but allowed them to be creative. Many of our challenge ideas came from Tinkercad themselves who have been hosting a series of them over the last few months. 

At the end of each design challenge, we took time to present what we had come up with, anything new we learned, and what we liked most about what we made.

By the way, the students were absolutely mesmerized just watching the 3D printer work. National Geographic Kids has a short but great video that we used to discuss how 3D printers work which was really great for helping the students understand what they were seeing.

To cap off the week we had one final project. Having realized how 3D printing requires quite a bit of time and resources, we discussed the engineering design process. 

Engineers use this process to help focus their efforts in solving problems. Students were provided with a final challenge and worked through this process, brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping their design until they were ready to design it digitally and print it. The younger students found the "prototyping with cardboard" phase to be exhausting but the results were incredible. At the end, we shared our results with the class.

Takeaways:

-I had a lot to learn about Tinkercad and 3D printing. Before this week, I had never created a 3D print, operated a 3D printer, or used Tinkercad. We had prints fail twice and set us back several hours because students had levitating objects in their design. Check and double check that all objects are ground level before starting a print!

-Prototyping with cardboard and glue was difficult. Next time I am 100% planning on having modeling clay on hand as the #1 suggested option for the students. The cardboard had great results but was tedious to work with.

-My students really connected with the idea of making things for others, including parents, friends, and pets. I'm planning to have new design challenges next time that have students interacting more with the community (if possible) and designing prints that benefit others.