I am a little embarrassed to admit that until this week, I didn't have a clear idea of what 3d printing was all about. In my mind, I was picturing an origami Cricut-type cutting machine because I had only seen pictures of objects with cut out shapes. After watching the videos and reading the articles, I believe the hype is justified.
With the opportunity to create and print practically any object, students in schools and libraries can study first hand the things they would typically only explore through two dimensional photos. I was most interested in reading about how museums were scanning their collections. One of my favorite sculptures is Degas's Little Dancer, To display this statue alongside books about ballet and art, the Degas might inspire students in new ways.
Last year, I brought coding into my English classroom. My students created narrative video games from original stories using Scratch and Gamestar Mechanic. Many of my girls who showed no interest in gaming actually enjoyed the construction and design process of building games. It was a fun experience, and one I will gladly improve upon this school year.
I would love to have a robot in our school! While watching the videos this week, I couldn't help but think of having a book recommendation robot in the library. Students could talk about topics that interested them, and the robot could list several book recommendations based upon criteria such as subject, length, and reading level. Students would love to interact with a book buddy.
For my project, I began using Sketchup. What a mistake! I spent hours experimenting and Googling help videos on Youtube. My final product was blah, and I am still not convinced I created it correctly.
After a lengthy break that involved reorganizing my storage room and a handful of M&M's, I was ready to try it again. This time I switched to Tinkercad. What a difference! I loved the tutorials in the beginning. I found them very helpful and right at my level. After a few tutorials, I was ready to begin working on my project. But I had no idea what I was creating.
I began playing around with shapes and letters, and my design ultimately became a miniature reading trophy suitable as a prize for a reading Olympics. I thought that would be a fun library tie-in during Olympic years. On the front, I created the letters R-E-A-D with a backdrop of a globe. On the reverse side are the Olympic rings and the word champion. After all, readers are champions in my book!
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