In the beginning of the 9th workshop, we discussed about maker education and specifically 3D design. We were asked about our past experiences with 3D design and we defined maker education space as learning by doing, meaning that you have the tools to create things.
Below the definition of maker education is given for clarity, and after that the two main 3D design tools that were explored in the workshop, Doodle 3D and Tinkercad, are presented followed by reflections on my own past experiences and on the connection of Tinkercad to 21st century skills.
According to Wikipedia, Maker education (a term coined by Dale Dougherty in 2013) closely associated with STEM learning, is an approach to problem-based and project-based learning that relies upon hands-on, often collaborative, learning experiences as a method for solving authentic problems. People who participate in making often call themselves "makers" of the maker movement and develop their projects in makerspaces, or development studios which emphasize prototyping and the repurposing of found objects in service of creating new inventions or innovations. Culturally, makerspaces, both inside and outside of schools, are associated with collaboration and the free flow of ideas. In schools, maker education stresses the importance of learner-driven experience, interdisciplinary learning, peer-to-peer teaching, iteration, and the notion of "failing forward", or the idea that mistake-based learning is crucial to the learning process and eventual success of a project.
Website Link: https://doodle3d.com/
We began playing with Doodle 3D, a free web-based environment for 3D design. This tool didn't require the creation of an account so we started exploring right away. The tool had a really nice graphical interface which is targeted for younger learners to gain some understanding of the 3D space.
Through my exploration of the tool, I collected some observations around its usability from an educational scope:
I really liked the simple structure of the environment and self-explanatory tool icons that reminded me of the "Paint" tool. I think
Personally, it was confusing that the operations you could do on a shape (move, rotate, resize) were "separated" in the two spaces. For example, it's not possible to resize or rotate an image in the 3D space but only on 2D. It's also not possible to move a shape freely by holding the left click on the 3D space, only on 2D.
Further instructional guidance could be useful. However, since the description of the tool refers to "offering a fun and intuitive way to learn the basics of 3D design" then it makes sense that it is kept as simple and plain as possible.
We explored Tinkercard in three levels, gradually stepping up the difficulty. We started from the beginners' tutorials on basic operations on the Tinkercad environment and then gradually moved to more complicated actions, shapes and structures. Afterwards, we moved to Simlab, the simulation space inside Tinkercad where we explored the ready-made simulations, figuring out how we can start and stop the simulation and seeing how they work.
Lastly, we experimented with Codeblocks, Tinkercad's programming space where designs and patterns can be created using programming blocks instead of the usual graphical interface.
During my work as a Robotics teacher for primary students, I experimented a lot with a 3D Design tool called Studio 2.0 by Bricklink. In this tool, I could import the Lego Education packages that I was using in my classroom, and create new robotic designs inspired from building videos, as well as design the step-by-step instructions for the students to follow. This was done with the purpose to enrich my course's contents. This was a fascinating tool to work with which really helped me understand how to work with the 3D space, as well as working with mechanical parts of the designs and putting them together precisely.
It was also helpful in figuring out how to structure the building instructions so that they would be comprehensive by the students. I think I practiced my computational thinking by attempting to break the design into small steps to guide the students in building it and adjusting the difficulty depending on the age of the students.
Below are some designs that I have created with Studio 2.0, along with the inspirations.
Step-by-step instructions created for the students
Easter Bunny design with Lego WeDo 2.0, inspired by this Youtube video
Shark design with Lego WeDo 2.0, inspired by this Youtube video
Step-by-step instructions created for the students
Step-by-step instructions for the students
Jumping Frog design with Lego BricQ Motion Essential, inspired by this video by Flip Creation
Space Shuttle design with Lego SPIKE Essential, inspired by this Youtube video
Step-by-step instructions for the students
Explore the background materials of Tinkercad and consider how the core 21st century skills are implemented in this application. How they are reflected in the content on the "Resources" page.
Through my exploration of Tinkercad, I found that it is very tightly aligned with 21st century skills and competencies, such as creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, computational thinking. More specifically, "learning by doing" is a core concept supported by Tinkercad's tools, since students engage in projects that call for them to design digital artifacts either with shapes or with coding and then possibly test them out to see how they work!
There is a lot of free space to get creative while using the tool, experimenting with your own designs from scratch, participating in challenges that urge you to think out of the box, getting creative ideas from tutorials on how to modify designs and possibly express yourself artistically as well.
Collaboration is supported through the teachers' ability to handle classrooms in Tinkercad and assign designs to students, with the combination of sharing links that can be used for the students to co-edit a design.
I would connect critical thinking directly with the SimLab environment where students can actually see their designs in motion and practice their trial and error skills. This means that they would have to pre-calculate the motion of their design, make predictions, afterwards try it and make adjustments, which is a process that I think really supports their critical thinking skills.
In the Codeblocks environment, students directly develop their computational thinking skills by figuring out how repeatable patterns can be created using algorithms,and attempting to build those step-by-step solutions to gradually go from simple to complex patterns.
By going through Tinkercad's supporting materials in the "Resources" page, I found multiple relevant materials that validate the tool's connection to 21st century skills.
In the "Tinkercad Blog" section, there is a special section for Teachers and parents that includes many events, suggestions, tips that address 21st century skills. Specifically, some examples that I found were "Codeblocks Resources for Hour of Code™ 2024" that refers to how teachers can support the Hour of Code. This is directly linked to the development of computational thinking skills. Another one was "Traces and Graphs boost physics experimentation in Tinkercad Sim Lab" which explicitly mentions the benefits of graphing for teachers and students, which relate to data literacy, STEAM approach and cross-disciplinary learning.
The structure of the Learning Center which has interactive step-by-step videos and tutorials addresses self-paced learning and helps students build on their problem-solving and creativity skills.
In the beginning of the 10th Workshop,we discussed about the difference between raster and vector images.
I was familiar with the difference, but it was explained to us that vector images are created as mathematical paths, whereas raster images are collection of pixels. Therefore, vector images provide infinite scalability, meaning that they can be resized without losing their quality compared to raster images who get pixelated if they are enlarged too much,
In this workshop,we used vector images as our basis for creating 2D designs for laser and vinyl cutting. The goal was to explore how we could create vector images in specific design programmes, BOXY-SVG and Inkscape and have a design ready by the next week's workshop where we would import our designs to the laser and vinyl cutters.
Website Link: https://inkscape.org/
I chose Inkscape over BOXY-SVG because it is a tool that I have seen is used more extensively and I didn't have the chance to explore much before.
The environment was a bit tricky at first because of the variety of object tools that it provides. However, once experimenting for a bit it was easy to get started and think about the design I wanted to create.
NOTE: The designs that were created are presented in the Workshop 11 page.