I built a 3D puzzle inspired by the Endover sculpture. The video that follows shows the puzzle being created on an Up! 3D printer. The pieces of the puzzle were built in FabLab ModelMaker and, when fabricated, combine to form a cube like Endover (see 00:48 to skip to the the final cube).

I envision a couple of engineering tasks hidden within the replication of a scaled, puzzle-like version of Endover. These engineering tasks may or may not be appropriate for elementary students, but I am currently in the brainstorming/prototyping phase. My partner teacher, Paula White, wants to develop some lessons that focus on spatial visualization, surface area, and volume.

1. The creation of a 3D puzzle that, when completed, forms a cube. Paula White and I have developed a preliminary activity that uses colored cm cubes to scaffold the creation of digital and physical puzzles like the one in the video.
2. The creation of a 3d puzzle that, when completed, forms a cube that can balance on one of its vertices. This would definitely be an advanced engineering design task, because it focuses on both the parts as well as additional design criteria and scientific concepts like gravity and friction.

In the meantime, I need to figure out if I can create an Endover puzzle that can balance on a vertex. The one in the video does not!

I put my design on Thingiverse if you want to 3D print a version of your own.

I finished a working prototype set of gears this afternoon. The gears in the video were fabricated from a single sheet of card stock and fastened to a folded card stock base with two brass fasteners. I fabricated the gears and base using a computerized 2D die-cut machine and basic software that is included with the machine. The intricacy of the gears almost necessitates computer-controlled precision versus the varying results of scissors.

Total Materials: Two sheets of card stock (gears and base) and two brass fasteners

Questions:

1. Do the gears spin in the same direction? Kind of obvious.
2. How many different ratio relationships can you identify? Not so obvious. You need to think about more than the gears’ teeth.
3. The blades on a wind turbine produce energy that is converted to electricity through a generator. Would you attach the blades to gear A or gear B? Not obvious without the context of wind turbines. You probably need some additional information. Nevertheless, logic will likely lead you to a reasonable guess.
4. If it took me 12 seconds to spin gear A in the video, gear A spins at what RPM?
5. If it took me 12 seconds to spin gear A in the video, gear B spins at what RPM?

I know that a couple of the students are wondering how to customize their basic crank automata, so here is a short video of a design that I created for some upcoming conferences:

“The Fraction Ruler” is a useful manipulative for helping students understand measurement and the lines on a ruler. This fraction ruler can also serve as a resource for practicing addition and subtraction of fractions.

It’s pretty cool that I can create a physical prototype of an instructional manipulative the very same afternoon after having a conversation with an advisor.  From idea-to-interpretation in less than five hours using nothing but common materials and some design software/hardware is kind of remarkable.  I am not sure if I am at the point where I can make anything, but I know that I can produce a fraction ruler…

Actually, I have to admit that the following manipulative wasn’t created in one afternoon. It wasn’t really the same afternoon because I had some follow-up questions, but if you count the time that it took me to make and fabricate “The Fraction Ruler,” it was pretty much a single afternoon.

Creating the instructions that follow is another story.  How do I tell teachers how to make what I made?  That’s a lot of work.  It’s too much information to fit in a single .pdf!  Here are the instructions and design files.  I did my best.

• Instructions
• Ruler Base & Template
• Ruler Fraction Overlays
• Ruler Fraction Overlays 2

I just finished some final design tweaks on a paper airplane launcher. The launcher (see video above) is likely going to be a part of a larger mathematics/modeling unit for upper elementary students.

The launcher is made out of eight sheets of standard card stock (65 lb). I used Silhouette Studio, a free download from the creators of ModelMaker, to design the various components and a Silhouette SD to digitally fabricate the parts.

I am including the files below in case anyone might like to download the software, purchase a Silhouette SD, and build a personal paper airplane launcher. I am in the process of working on assembly instructions…

• Base Supports
• Brace Supports
• Left Base
• Right Base
• Protractor
• Protractor Supports
• Ruler
• Vertical Arms

The Paper Airplane

Here are the design files for one of the paper airplanes that appears in the video.  A fellow graduate student and I are still testing various designs so there are no promises…

• Fuselage
• Inverted Wings

This post is about how various professionals are using digital fabrication techniques to extend, enhance, and redefine their respective fields.* The sections that follow highlight real life examples of crazy ways that people are using the process to do something different- and making breakthroughs. These examples don’t necessarily shed light on the educational implications of digital fabrication; just what is possible in the most far reaching possibilities, many years away for the target audience (upper elementary and middle school students). At the same time, I wonder if the groundwork established by teachers at Lovett, Crozet, and Punahou aren’t the foundation for future architects, doctors, and filmmakers.

Aside: Most of the examples involve some variation of 3D printing, a component of digital fabrication that relates to the production of physical objects. 3D printing involves machines similar to conventional printers that precisely apply materials other than ink. Think of squeezing frosting through a tube onto a cake in an additive manner that builds the depth and volume of an object and you have a very rough idea of 3D printing. The difference between this metaphor and actual 3D printing is that 3D printing involves the use of computers that add both precision and control to the process. Still confused? Here is a video of me creating a miniature version of UVA’s Rotunda on elementary-appropriate software that is then fabricated using a 3D printer (see 2:48 of the video).

Cinema: Film & Video Game Prototypes

It’s a bit hard to believe that the creators of such hit titles as Ironman 2 and Halo 3 really need physical models. After all, the final medium is entirely 2D (for the most part). Yet, making and creating models is an important facet of the visual reality of video games and movies.

Automobile: Rims, Intake Valves & Other Customizations

Steeda Autosports creates Ford accessories of all types. Regardless of whether it is a “blinging” rim or a new set of shocks and springs, Steeda uses digital fabrication to create quick models (also known as rapid prototyping) that appeal to their clients’ wants and needs.

Read more at 3D printing revs up Steeda Autosports’ R&D.

Architecture: Concrete Printing

Making scale models and printed diagrams have always been a part of the “architect’s handbook.” Both contextual and illustrative, architects often use models and diagrams to convey thoughts and ideas. However, what happens when the architect is able to create with cutting edge processes?

National Security: Surveillance

I wonder how digitally fabricating insect wings and flying objects like those in the video that follows might further my safety. And my love of remote controlled objects.

Medicine: Building Organs

Much of this is Greek to me, but I kind of see it… If you can 3D print the building blocks of an organ, where can you go?

Read more at Building body parts with 3D printing.

*I am of two minds about workforce development topics as it pertains to education. Despite my conflicting thoughts, I thought that it might be helpful for the attendees to understand how various fields are using digital fabrication in the workplace. I feel like this post needs this caveat because it might appear that workforce rationales are the primary justifications for engaging in age/context-appropriate forms of digital fabrication. There are more reasons that pertain to engineering, mathematics, and 21st Century Skills, but I am not going to get into it within this post.

Mitchell Jetten is one of the youngest and most successful shop owners on Shapeways, an open web market for personally designed products. At age 19, Mitchell offers products that build upon his passion: model trains and railroad accessories. His most successful design is a train that is common to the Netherlands, a VIRM 9500 series, and the popularity of his designs earned him nearly $4000 since his SpoorObjecten Shop opened on Shapeways.

Mitchell engages in a process known as digital fabrication when producing his model trains and accessories. Digital fabrication, in its simplest form, involves the creation of a digital design that is then produced in physical form by using specialized hardware. Mitchell uses software that is a mixture of commercial and open source 3D CAD software that resembles Google Sketchup in order to create his railroad accessories. He relies on hardware like 3D printers and CNC machines to translate this digital artifact into something that is physical and tangible. The hardware is not located in a nearby space for Mitchell; he uses Shapeways equipment and web infrastructure to produce, manufacture, market, and sell the designs that he creates.

Although digitally fabricating objects might seem outlandish and inconceivable, millions of people engage in the process on a daily basis. Just look at the mundane and commonplace use of Microsoft Word and the ubiquitous printer. Countless businesspeople, professionals, teachers, and students use this word processing software to type words on a computer. With a connected printer, individuals turn the “bits” of typed text into something that appears on paper, a tangible reflection that can be held, dispersed, and passed along. The big difference between Mitchell and the everyday printing process is that Mitchell is fabricating 3D objects that have depth, volume, form, and a consistency that is more than just paper.

Regardless of one’s awareness of the term or the production of 3D objects, digitally fabricating physical objects is not a new concept. In 2006, Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, gave international communities $20,000 worth of fabrication software and equipment so that local farmers and village people could solved problems that market and technical resources failed to address. The primary users weren’t engineers or scientists but individuals with a high degree of curiosity, motivation, and tenaciousness. What was created was remarkable: laypeople developed instrumentation for agriculture production in the country of Ghana and citizens in remote villages in India made steam turbines. Gershenfeld noted that when people were given the power to create rather than consume information, there was a high degree of empowerment, problem solving, and invention. For additional information, check out Gershenfeld’s book, Fab.

In the spring of 2010, the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC gave the Fab@School proposal an endorsement by recognizing it with a Digital Media and Learning award. Building on the work of Gershenfeld, the Fab@School proposal aims to connect the digital fabrication process, including easy-to-use software and affordable hardware, to existing K-12 curricular mandates in a manner that engages future Mitchell Jettens to look closely at the science, engineering, and mathematics of futuristic creation. And, unlike other fabrication initiatives, Fab@School’s primary focus is on elementary teachers and students, not high school.

Fab@School is about learning, engagement, and creativity at its core, not about the software and equipment. Although important to the success and opportunities in digital fabrication at the K-12 level, the mechanisms for producing physical objects are a means to an end despite the “whiz-bang” futurism of 3D printers and 2D die-cut machines. The proposal’s “meat” is the curriculum that provides alternative ways to address existing standards through creation and design in a manner befitting Seymour Papert’s constructionist philosophy: Learning occurs when there is a reconstruction of knowledge through the making of physical objects.

At the end of June, Fab@School investigators tested prototype lessons with middle school students in Albemarle County Public Schools. The students were all participants in a pilot program called M-Cubed, an initiative focused on helping African American middle school boys with algebra readiness. Although not truly project-based learning experiences, the lessons prompted discussion and exploration of algebraic concepts, variables, geometry, volume, and surface area. Sample lessons can be found at the digital fabrication website.

As the unofficial photographer for this experience, I thought that I would share some pictures from M-Cubed 2010. I am also including a video that was created by Daniel Tillman, a colleague who works on the Fab@School project with me. The video was shot after students had only an hour of instructional directions- this shows the ease of the fabrication process.

1. Personal Fabrication Systems in the Classroom: Lessons, Examples, and Learning

• Tuesday, 6/29/2010, 10:00am–12:00pm, CCC Lobby A, Table: P19
• Description: Explore ways in which elementary and secondary teachers are using personal fabrication systems to create three-dimensional objects and support STEM learning in their classrooms.
• In addition to seeing my shining face, this poster session will feature Celine, a fifth grade student from Crozet Elementary School.  Celine will be fabricating personal designs with the software and hardware that was used in her school this past year.  You can read more about Celine and her interests on her wiki.
• Representatives from Aspex Software, Fablevision, Software MacKiev, and Graphtec America will be present to answer questions.

2. The FabLab Classroom: A Digital Fabrication Laboratory for Schools

• Tuesday, 6/29/2010, 2:00pm–3:00pm, CCC 205/207
• Description: The FabLab Classroom empowers students to invent simple machines and other usable products. Learn about digital fabrication in math, science, and language arts.
• This formal session features my adviser, Glen Bull, as well as Arlene Borthwick, Mike Charles, Sarah McPherson, Nick Sanham, Peggy Healy Stearns and Paula White.

3. Exhibit Hall: Canon USA, Inc.

• Location: Booth 1924 (floorplan)
• Experiment and play with digital fabrication equipment at the Canon booth!

4. Exhibit Hall: Software MacKiev

• Location: Booth 840 (floorplan)
• Peggy Healy Sterns, creator of popular software titles like The Graph Club and Stationary Studio, will be demoing a new piece of digital fabrication software that she is developing with Software MacKiev.  I will also be there as time permits.