4. Field Activity: Digital Fabrication for kids¶
This week I worked on making my lesson plan called “Design Challenge: Make a 3D printed irregular object with a specific volume.”
Process¶
The idea for this lesson plan came from a collaboration between myself and a 5th grade math teacher who needed help making irregular volume more interesting and relatable for her students. Irregular volume is an abstract concept which can be very difficult for 5th grade students. The idea was to make irregular volume, measuring, and estimation more concrete by using physical objects and design.
Students begin by using the pre-made 3D printed objects to learn to measure volume by the water displacement method. These objects are 1cm^3, 6 cm^3, and 12 cm^3. They then use these objects to estimate the volume of their own designs in TinkerCad. To test their estimations, they 3D print their original designs and measure the volume of them using water displacement. Students are given the opportunity to iterate their designs to create a more accurate volume.
Learning Outcomes¶
5th Grade Math¶
(5.MD.C.3) Recognize volume as an attribute of solid figures and understand concepts of volume measurement. (5.MD.C.4) Measure volume by counting unit cubes, using cubic centimeters, cubic inches, cubic feet, and improvised units.
FAB I CAN¶
(Fab-Safety.1): I can safely conduct myself in a Fab Lab and observe (Fab-Modeling.2): I can construct compound shapes and multi-part components ready for physical production using multiple representations. (Fab-Design.2): I can participate in design reviews with prepared presentation materials as well as give and receive feedback from peers.
The entire lesson plan can be found HERE
Reflection¶
The math teacher that I collaborated with said that her students always struggled with abstract mathmatical concepts and that was the reason she wanted to add a hands-on component to these particular standards. This lesson combines measuring techniques that are concrete (counting cubic centimeters) to a more abstract technique of water displacement. Students were also given an opportunity to practice estimation which was an earlier standard. I believe if we had just given the students the task of designing in TinkerCad without first using the manipulatives to calculate volume, their estimations would have been wildly inaccurate.
Students were suprized that they were using “scientific” techniques in math class. I think they enjoyed measuring the manipulatives using water displacement and comparing their results to known formulas (lxwxh). We also had a bit of an inpromptu density lesson because the 1 cm^3 cube would float right at the top of the water while the other sizes sank. We talked about how the density of water is 1 gram per cm^3. Maybe they will remember this in 3 years when density is covered in science.
The challenge for students is designing a new object within the dimensional restraints. They need a lot of feedback before printing their objects to understand that the object must fit inside the graduated cylinder’s diameter before they can measure the volume.
The challenge for myself was getting all the student’s objects printed with only two 3D printers. We saved all of the .stl files from tinkercad onto a flashdrive and then as the lab teacher I ran them through a slicer program and made the prints. We scheduled the class to return to the lab a week from their “design day” to give me enough time to print (especially since there were 3 classes of designs). I would love to do this lesson again with access to more 3D printers. It would help the math teacher’s workflow as well to not have to have such a big gap between lessons.