Design Lab

Girls Who code

September 2025

Girls Who Code is an international nonprofit organization that aims to close the gender gap in technology by inspiring, educating, and equipping girls and non-binary students with computer science skills.

The O'Maley Girls Who Code Club meets every Thursday in the Science Center.

January 2026

Girls Who Code dipped their programming toes into Python this session.

Hazel created a turtle that says "Hello, my name is Ronja and I am very loud."

Ronja was only a little impressed

traveling in circles

February 2026

7th grade math students are in the design Lab creating wheel measuring tools that correspond to the length of their hands.

Using the length of their hand as the circumference value of their wheel, students determine the diameter needed to create the correct size wheel. Using their diameter, students design a 'traveler' in Tinkercad that is unique to the maker's hand size. Spokes are added to divide the traveler into 8 sections, with initials marking the starting point.

Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Framework

A. Draw, construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them. 1. Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, such as computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale. 2. Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, and with technology) two-dimensional geometric shapes with given conditions. Focus on constructing triangles from three measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine a unique triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle. 3. Describe the shape of the two-dimensional face of the figure that results from slicing three-dimensional figures, as in plane sections of right rectangular prisms and right rectangular pyramids.

B. Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume. 4. Circles and measurement: a. Know that a circle is a two-dimensional shape created by connecting all of the points equidistant from a fixed point called the center of the circle. b. Understand and describe the relationships among the radius, diameter, and circumference of a circle. c. Understand and describe the relationship among the radius, diameter, and area of a circle. d. Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems. e. Give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle.

Engineering Design

April 2026

6th graders are in the design lab using isometric paper to draw 2 dimensional representations of 3 dimensional objects on the x,y,z coordinate plane.

Using snap cubes, students build objects of increasing complexity. Turning and drawing the objects from different views helps build spatial visualization skills. By adding color, students separate the top, front and side views of the objects.

Spatial visualization is the study of 2 and 3 dimensional objects and the ability to mentally manipulate these objects. Spatial visualization skills are helpful in many subjects and fields including math, science, engineering, art and sports. How strong are your spatial visualization skills?

Spatial Visualization Quiz

Spatial Visualization Quiz Answers

Massachusetts STE Standards:

6.MS-ETS1-5(MA). Create visual representations of solutions to a design problem. Accurately interpret and apply scale and proportion to visual representations.*

Clarification Statements:

• Examples of visual representations can include sketches, scaled drawings, and orthographic projections.

• Examples of scale can include ¼ʺ = 1ʹ0ʺ and 1 cm = 1 m.

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD)

Tinkercad

April 2026

Tinkercad is a free, online modeling program students can use to design objects for 3d printing. O'Maley 6th graders are learning and practicing the basic functions of Tinkercad by designing name tags for printing. The final designs must hold together after printing, and fit a size envelope of 2,000-3,000 square millimeters.