3D Printing City X Project

Now in my third year of teaching engineering to kindergarten through fifth grade students, I find that I use more projects with my third through fifth grade students.  It is difficult to complete projects in a timely manner because I see the students once a week for an hour-long class.  Larger projects usually take place over a minimum of two months.  The most recent project was completed by fifth grade students.  They completed our version of the City X Project.

This project was fantastic for educators just starting to integrate 3D printing into their classroom.  All the support resources are ready to go.  The project entailed the students receiving a problem from a citizen in City X.  Students brainstormed original solutions and chose one idea to develop and refine. The provided student workbook demonstrated sketching a model in 3D.  Students followed sketching with building a clay model.  I measured out the clay on a scale to limit the amount of clay needed, make it equal for all the students, and minimize the size of the 3D prints to assist with quick printing.  After their clay model was complete, students made various measurements needed to create their build in a simple CAD program (tinkercad.com).  The end goal was to have the clay and printed model be as similar in shape and size as possible.

This was the first time I used the 3D printer or a CAD program in the classroom.  My fifth grade students, all 90 of them, worked independently.  This was one of the reasons I wanted to limit clay and 3D model size.  Printing all the projects was definitely the most difficult aspect of the project.  I created a free Tinkercad account under my email.  All the students used the same account.  This allowed me to easily access and download their completed files for printing.  I used a naming system that made it easy to search all the builds and locate them for modification and download, studentfirstname_teachername_cityx.  I plan on adding the grade level into the name since I will be using it next with fourth grade students followed by third grade students.

The students' responses when comparing their clay and printed models was amazing.  The emphasis on measurement and converting between cm and mm was a strong component in developing the CAD version from the clay model.  I had some technical difficulties with Tinkercad over the school's wifi.  I don't know if it was due to the use of a single account, school wifi, or issues at Tinkercad.  I tend to think it was the wifi because at times it would work fine and other times during the same day I had many issues.  Tinkercad was the best CAD program I could find for my novice designers.  Tinkercad was intuitive and easy to learn.

I will be starting this project with the fourth grade students after winter break.  Third and fourth grade students will work in pairs for the project.  Next year, they will experience the project individually.