Skip to content

4. Field Activity: Digital Fabrication for kids

Subject Area & Learning Objectives

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

Developping the Prototype

A year ago I developped an activity to build a lamp from wood waste after our cnc projects, I decided to modify it in order to use it with a laser cutter.

Here is the lamp redesigned for a 3mm material :

Here is the file arranged to be exported as a dxf :

And finally, here is the interface form Xtool Creative Space to cut the file with my laser cutter :

SCOPES lesson

https://www.scopesdf.org/scopesdf_lesson/build-a-lasercut-lamp-and-its-circuit/

My first lesson plan is a quick guide to create a led circuit and integrate it on an object that can be customized.

Reflections

  • How do you think digital fabrication improves the activity vs utilizing traditional methods? What is the extra value?

Learning how electricity is working and making it work is a different experience, because the students are actually experiencing it through manipulating and testing. To my point of view it is easier to keep focus during this type of activity because at each steps the students a closer to get the lamp working. The extra value might be that they are learning by building a functional object representing what they have been learning.

  • What are some challenges you expect when you do the activity with your class?

I expect some challenge with the soldering part, regarding the age of the participants, I will solder the LED bands by myself before the activity to avoid injuries. Another challenge would be the differnces of level between the students, to solve this, the customization part can be an activity for the quicker ones, or they can help the ones that are not as advanced as they are. This way they can improve by sharing what they understood, and share what they’ve been learning.

  • What have you learnt in the process?

  • Describe the process that you went through to create the teaching aid. What did you learn during the fabrication process?

I think I should take better pictures and get a real lesson plan, it looks more like a cool activity to me, as a non-teacher I don’t know if it could fit in a lesson this way ?

On the field

from Selena Pere on Vimeo.