Some of my designs

Metric Problems!

I encountered this problem quite heavily in teaching the adult course, but designs made in inches would automatically register in Makerware as millimeters. The problem this year is that designs in Sketchup that students make in inches need to be resized in Makerware. 
It presents a huge problem for pieces that need to be glued together. So I am going to have to actively show students that all designs must be laid out on paper with dimensions in metric form.

3D Printing Year 2

My co-teacher and I began the second year of teaching 3D printing for students. There are marked changes in the group this year.  I don't think the students knew exactly what to expect last year, but this years group are more excited because of last year.  Also, teaching after school on a Wednesday seems to be better than teaching on a Saturday because students are still in the learning zone.


This year, we have put more effort into group learning projects.  The students like working together and were enthusiastic about the projects. We did one project where students had to build a load-bearing standalone structure out of tape and Q-tips.  Students did another project where students had to use buttons to fill a shape on a paper.  Different buttons were given monetary values, and students could not exceed $100 worth of buttons to create their figures.

We did an individual project where students had to draw a picture from an object on sight, but many of the students didn't put as much effort into it.  That was quite disappointing, because some of the students who I know to be good artists showed very little on the page. Part of the competition is design, so I think we will have to revisit the idea that commercial art has value.  Perhaps a t-shirt designing competition is in order.