Mindful Ed

For our first project, the students worked in groups to design objects to add organization to our learning environment. Since we are experimenting with the use of tables over desks, this is relevant project very much connected with life in our classroom. During their first experience with  TinkerCad  students navigated through help tutorials to familiarize themselves with tools and functionality.  Then they got work brainstorming options. I noticed students using measurement tools to create designs that were reasonable in scale in relation to the objects they were intended to hold.  After our design work period, we selected our first print!  Unfortunately , our print stopped about half way through. It seemed as though the filament got tangled in the internal feed port.  We used this first failure as an opportunity to better understand the inner workings of our M3D printer as well as misconceptions about the scale in our designs (as you ca...

Just over a week ago, my classroom's 3D printer arrived. It was a Friday, and as eager as I was to check it out myself, I wanted to share the experience with my students. So there, on a large rectangular table, sat the box ... I took a picture of it and posted it to our instagram feed (@weberswonders7) to instill a little curiosity.  On Monday morning, the classroom was a buzz of excitement. We had a class discussion about what we believed to be in the box and what might be possible with this new learning tool. Students recorded their thinking on sticky notes and attached them to the (still closed) box. We have been talking about the design process and students made connections with the importance of getting inspiration from the world around them.  This sticky notes was my favourite!  The following day we opened the box and created a list of questions and wonderings about the M3D printer. Initial Questions: How do we take care of it? ...