#Household 3D Models for Printing Lessons

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How 3D Printing Can Boost Learning?

"Simply put, creation is an act of will." This Jurassic Park remark has never been more relevant than it is now, thanks to technology. The use of 3D printing and computer-aided design (CAD) in the classroom enables pupils to create like never before. A young industry, 3D printing has the ability to "print" everything from houses to cars to household products and much more.

Teachers may use this new technology to smoothly incorporate STEM into any classroom while also engaging students with their state standards in fresh and interesting ways. My students and I have grown to enjoy the 3D printer I got for my school because it improves lessons and fosters classroom community.

Community in the classroom and 3D printing

By providing incentives and fostering relationships with the students, my Prusa MINI 3D printer improves the classroom environment. After a class change, when I enter the room, I frequently notice children gazing intently at the 3D printer while it works. After finishing a unit of study in my social studies class, we play review games like Kahoot, Quizz, and Jeopardy. I 3D-printed Baby Yoda, the Ammit statue from Moon Knight, and different reptiles, for instance, for the Kahoot winners.

Almost anything with Dwayne Johnson's face is a student favourite. Dwayne Johnson's face has been affixed to various objects on the website Thingiverse, including a squirrel, a Tyrannosaurus rex (referred to as T-Rocks), a hawk, an octopus, etc. Despite how absurd it may appear, students adore it.

These 3D printed items can be given as rewards to every student, not only Kahoot contest winners. Students may receive a Dwayne Johnson face reward if they are behaving well, going through a difficult time, participating in class discussions when they ordinarily don't, or showing up on time.

With rewards in mind, 3D printing can strengthen relationships with pupils. For me to print, several students have used Thingiverse or produced their own 3D models. For instance, a student discovered a 3D skink item at her house, which also happened to be one of her pets. I printed the file for her after she sent it to me. She was thrilled when I gave her the skink because it was something incredibly easy for me to do. Another kid wanted to print a mallard, so he located the file, emailed it to me, and we all put it on the 3D printer together.

We have been publishing many anime-related items because many pupils are anime fans. The likelihood that my pupils will work harder in class increases if we can collaborate and interact positively.

IMPROVE LEARNING WITH 3D PRINTING

Beyond being entertaining, 3D printing has significant implications for boosting teaching and improve students' overall learning experiences. This covers both routine tasks and more substantial project-based learning (PBL) units. Students in my U.S. history class utilised Tinkercad to create a Monopoly piece to use when they play the board game as part of a subject on the Gilded Age.

The correct file type (.stl) was exported when students finished designing their 3D Monopoly component. Supports were then placed in a slicer tool that produced a g-code file, and the g-code file was then uploaded to the 3D printer. Support is added to assist prevent print jobs from failing. The moment the pupils held something they had created in their hands after printing, which can often take eight to ten hours, they were overjoyed.

PBLs can also be built using the technology of 3D printing. We've finished two PBLs in my class that involved 3D printing. In the first, students had to create a bridge that was as light as feasible while yet being able to support the required weight. The bridges were created by the students, printed, and tested using a small concrete weight. Following that, students returned to Tinkercad and continued to fiddle with their bridge in an effort to make it lighter and lighter.

The second PBL involves creating and printing a tool to assist an elderly person or a person with a disability. The task for the class was to design for a real individual. To continue brushing his own teeth despite having arthritis in his fingers, one student's granddad was given a toothbrush holder that fit around his wrist. Both of these PBLs used 3D printing to encourage students to think practically and with empathy.

I've discovered that 3D printing significantly improves the learning environment in the classroom, whether the objects are utilised as incentives or in courses to increase student engagement. According to my observations in social studies classes in high school, pupils really enjoy it. I would consider that a victory if it were the only thing they were anticipating that day.

And applications for 3D printing in high school classes are just getting started. Science, math, and culinary arts could all benefit in some way from 3D printing. Students' imaginations can be sparked and the process of creating can become more tangible thanks to 3D printing.

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Week 2 - Idea Transfers

On Tuesday we had an input about rapid prototyping. Due to the Monday lesson this week we already know what prototyping in design means. So we just want to repeat briefly what very rapid prototyping should be:

cheap

fast

“quick & dirty”

But pay attention this term is also used in architecture, engineering and industrial design, where it means to make a 3D model or print, or even making a CNC-Machine product.

After that we talked about what kind of waste we all have at home, because of an exercise we had to do later. So we listed a few things:

used paper

used cardboards

plastic bottles

plasticbags

old clothes 

dirt 

stones

decorative objects/gadgets

old projects repurposed

food scraps - compost

The exercise was create a prototype, that might be useful for our project. We got 25 minutes, to meet up, think about something that could help us for our project and to create it. We were excited about the exercise and had fun doing it, even though we had to do it via zoom because of the circumstances. 

So we thought how it would be if the presenter has a tool at home like the picture underneath that gives him a feedback how he the audience is feeling at the moment. Scans of the faces would calculate the mood from the participants. And there would maybe a screen filled with colour to sum up all the results. 

Of course not everything was worked out yet, especially because we do not have any experience about face recognition. The opinions from our classmates was very varying some of them found our idea funny and nice but others did not like the fact that the camera is tracking their face expressions all the time. Also because it is really hard to look happy or interesting all the time even though you might feel that way. So we had to think about a different idea how to give the online presenter a feedback. In the pictures below you can see our project.

After the exercise with the rapid prototype we had to do another exercise that should relate on body storming. So we tried to put our thoughts in action, we asked our selfs simple and important questions by acting them out. We still wanted to stick to the same idea than the rapid prototype but consider the feedback we got. Therefore we used google presentations and made the following graph: 

With colours we tried to make it easier for the presenter/teacher to see, how the students feel at the moment. We categorised it in interesting with the opposite boring and understood with the opposite didn’t understood. 

Each person can now move a circle in the graph depending how he feels about the lesson or presentation. Also you could ask a question anonymously, what could encourage the students. This is how it could look like during the lesson/presentation: 

For our presentation we ask Baran, if he could present his presentation from Monday again and get him self filmed. Know he had three monitors in front of him, one with his presentation in zoom, one with his own notes and one with the graph, how we feel like during his presentation. Here the video of our presentation: 

After presenting our idea we talked about it with the other students and Joëlle and we determine that this prototype would have the following advantage and disadvantage:

advantage:

you often ask you self if the people understood you, that is why this tool could be useful

anonymously could encourage the students to ask more questions, what could lead to a better understanding of the topics

disadvantage:

the monitor with movements could be a distraction

the categories interesting and boring are not well chosen, because it could hurt the people or demotivate them 

It was a nice to experience, how body storming can influence us. It kind of helped us to decide, that we rather would do something that helps people to connect with one another, also that might could be used in therapy. Therefore Baran had an interview on Thursday morning with a Therapist from France. In advance we collected all the questions we wanted to ask her on a google doc. The questions mainly related to the theme how therapy is now with the quarantine. If you want to read the whole interview follow this link, these are the notes, that Baran took during the talk, as well as more Informations about the therapist: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12dhFKBWoOzrCzolXCmbfiEy3i71fNiwoBf48Wz66vPE/edit

Mai, David and Ramona were gathering many informations about what kind of therapy there are and specially what kind of creative therapy there is. The pictures below are related work we founded to the topic that was interesting for us. The left part of this pictures are informations we got from this website, on Thursday 2 April:

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/04/tools-for-therapy-nicolette-bodewes-tactile-object-psychotherapy-dutch-design-week-2016/

The right part we got from a research Paper about Drawing in aphasia: moving towards the interactive from the author Carol Sacchett from the year 2002. 

The four of us discussed together in what direction we would like to go with our project and what we would like to achieve. Before that we had to reflect where we come from and what informations we collected. So here our review: 

We started with the themes: Therapy - Healthcare - Help with Technology

In the first week we were busy with these topics: How we can help with loneliness / boredom

In the second week we changed to: How we can help with loneliness and the lack of social “connection”. Due to the phone call with the therapist we realised that boredom is not really a problem, but the feeling of intimacy is and that there is a Lack of “connection” → less intensity of emotional expression, because of the online therapy.

That is why we decided, that we would mix these two things together: 

Tool that helps communicating with friends

Tools that help communication in therapy (Therapist and Patient)

The result for us was that we want to create a tool that helps with non-verbal communication (visual, drawing), for everyone and could be used in therapy. 

We did not want to make another survey, for one because we think this time it is not the right tool to use and because we wanted to make a small experiment with our friends. We sent them the following message: 

Hi, as you might know, we are currently working on a project in our module Interaction Design Process for our studies at the ZHdK.

It would be nice if you would take part in our game. Just sit down for a few minutes and draw something that makes you happy.

We collected all the drawings until 21.00 and sent a different one, to all the other participants. So we are like a network that spreads different drawings to all the participants that do not know each other. The outcome was impressive and really nice, nobody was disappointed of what they got and a few of the people were grateful as it was a little gift. 

Here are a few examples how the people reacted:

The rest of the results getting uploaded in the next few days on this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OSdkQlrKfr2PRkMS_GlW6xiBQt7i_HxN?usp=sharing

For the next four week we had planed the following things:

Experiment Drawing-Date; We would like to give a view households the task that they have to make a painting or a drawing together, so they feel more connected to each other. This would be the task:

They have to pick one of these options:

Draw whatever you want together

Draw each other

Draw a landscape together

After that they have to answer these questions:

How was this experience for you? (Fun, Intimate, Frustrating)

Did you enjoy it?

Did you feel like you bonded during this task?

The Material they would get would be: paper, two coloured pencils (1 colour per person) / or finger paints, candle (because it is a date)

Further we would like to make a self experiment, where we draw our mood every two hours, from the moment you wake up to the moment we fall asleep. We have these expectations: 

seeing a pattern in the time of the day and the mood

helps to unwind and turn away from the screen for a while

helps to understand and know oneself better

And of course we want to make more desk-based research into non-verbal visual communication. So we get to know and understand more of this topic.

This week was a real roller coaster with many up and downs. But finally we know in what direction we would like to go and everyone is motivated for the following weeks. 

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When Drag Queens Were King

With the conflicts about LGBTQIA+, it is fascinating to look back at the history of gays in American history. Once, not only accepted but widely celebrated, drag was a prominent face in the entertainment industry.

During the Shakespearean period, in the late 16th century and early 17th century, women were not permitted to perform on the stage. Men played the female roles. While this wasn’t exactly “drag”, it’s possible gay men took advantage of the opportunity to express their feminine sides.

Originally, drag was not only applied to men performing while dressed as women but, any performer dressed in costumes other than their own gender. In fact, the first recorded drag contest and “ball” in America took place in 1867! Men and women performed in Harlem, New York. There were drag queens and drag kings. Notable during the 1880’s and 1890’s was William Dorsey Swann. Known as the Queen of Drag, Dorsey was more than just a drag queen. An African American, born into slavery, was known for holding secret drag balls. The “Queen of Drag”, Swann, is believed to be the first person in the United States to lead a gay resistance. He held secret drag balls in Washington, DC. One part of the drag balls included a competition known as a “cakewalk”, originally held on plantations by slaves. Couples would dance in precise steps and formation. It is believed to have been a way to subtly make fun of the formal white dances pre and post emancipation. As dance contests, the winners were awarded with cakes!

The Jazz Age (from 1920 - early 1930’s) in large cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco saw the popularity of drag performers rise. Minstrel shows, vaudeville, and burlesque provided drag entertainment. Unlike many drag performers, Jean (Gene) Malin was not trying to impersonate a woman. During Prohibition, the days of the “pansy craze”, Malin was openly gay and proud of it. Described as flamboyant and effeminate, he entertained audiences with a wonderful sense of humor. At six feet tall and two hundred pounds, Malin had a lisp that delighted his fans. He was capable of defending himself when needed. He performed in high end nightclubs and was featured in films and on Broadway.

In 1920 Drag Balls and contests were so popular they were even represented in film. Men were referred to as “pansies” or “sissies” and were often portrayed as clothing designers or tailors, hairdressers, or choreographers and dancers. Flamboyant and effeminate, they added humor to films. Women were portrayed as more masculine and dressed in male fashions.

There were actors and actresses who were known to be homosexual, if not to the general public, usually within their professional circles. In 1930’s, Marlene Dietrich, who made no secret of her bisexuality, had the first passionate same sex kiss in a film. However, that wasn’t the first same sex kiss in film. In 1922, Cecil B. DeMille directed a silent movie l, “Manslaughter”, that included an orgy. Although the first same sex kiss has been attributed to the later film, “Wings” in 1927, it was the earlier silent movie that broke the mold.

Drag has once again become popular in America with shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race. On the other hand, the country is in turmoil. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) community is already beginning to feel the change in the air, from the White House to every house, apartment, mobile home, hotel, or tent. The president has already signed several executive orders that will negatively impact LGBTQIA+ communities across the country. We can’t allow America to return to days of the Hays Code. We’ve too far to allow it to slip away.

Source: When Drag Queens Were King