2. Digital fabrication in education¶
Vinyl Cutting¶
I used this assignment to focus on making a sticker to display on a question board for our Lower School Science Trout Project. During the process, I constantly edited my design to make sure that I was capturing the most essential physical traits while also being mindful that I would need to weed out the smaller pieces later. It was a good exercise to both add in the information I wanted to share through my sticker (in this case physical traits) and be mindful of how the size of the final sticker would affect my ability to weed out all of the small pieces. The sticker ended up being about 12 inches long, and if I were to scale it down, I would have to eliminate some of the finer details.
I used Canva to trace an image of traditional fish print which is a project that 9-10s will be doing as an art integration. I chose Canva, because this is the design software that our students have access to, but it proved to be more difficult to export an svg file than I had anticipated and I will need to figure out how to streamline the steps for my students.
How does this project inspire me?¶
This project was a lot of fun and it would be an engaging activity for students. I think that it’s a great tool for project presentations and for unique wrapping of shop projects. I can also see how it offers lots of opportunities for making iron-on fabric designs or stickers to help get the word out for projects or events that students might be spearheading. Our 7th and 8th graders lead an activism project every year, and I plan on sharing this as a tool for stickers and shirts for that project.
Sample DF-Science Integration Lesson using the Vinyl Cutter¶
Mammal Sticker Design:¶
Similar to the trout sticker I made, I would have each 8-9s student design a sticker showing the physical traits of the mammal chosen for their spring research project. The activity would reinforce our learning goals of identifying and communicating physical traits of their mammal and could be expanded to include identifying and communicating behavioral traits by showing a specific movement in their mammal’s pose.
At the point of creating this sticker, students will have already researched their animal during science class and practiced sharing information about their mammals through various artistic projects in Spanish, Writing, and Art classes.
In tech class, 8-9s will use an image of their mammal to create a sticker that accurately shares physical traits specific to the species. Students will get feedback from teachers and peers to refine their design until it is ready to print. Since this project is writing-heavy, I will have them submit video reflections of the process of creating the sticker and ask them to reflect on the difference of creating a scientific drawing digitally compared to drawing it by hand.
A Reflection on My Comfort Within the Digital Fabrication Continuum¶
I feel most comfortable on the “DF by kids” end of the continuum. I think this is because I’ve never had a ton of success in telling kids what they should want to make. I have found that facilitating a space where kids feel in control of their design choices and simply offering support to help them actualize their goals has proven to be more impactful for the students and for me as their teacher. A roadblock I might encounter while working at this end of the continuum at this point in my own learning journey is not having enough experience with the tools to help a student overcome a technical challenge. I think that scenario of having to troubleshoot alongside a student for too long can lead to a loss of engagement.
Link to Canva Design:¶
Trout SVG File https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wfy9VgyNJYka3jk32dLUujeQgwfG-cBv/view?usp=sharing