4. Field Activity 02

Making a gear box for a wind turbine

The lasat week I designed and tested a lesson plan for a lesson where the students had to make (at least) two gears for a model of a wind turbine.

SCOPES-DF

Here is the link to my scopes-df lesson

Reflection questions

1.Student Engagement: How did your students respond to the use of digital fabrication technology? Did it increase their engagement or motivation? Why or why not?

In this course we already used DF a lot. But so far it has mostly been using DF for learning DF. The kids seemed happy to use DF for something useful. Since then I went to a new, so far only theoretical, topic with them and their motivation changed a lot. I can safely say that DF increases engagement by far.

2.Student Learning Outcomes: How effectively did the digital fabrication component help students achieve the learning objectives? Were there any unexpected learning outcomes?

The fabrication component helps learners to touch and try out their learning outcomes. Making mistakes and being able to reflect on them independently leads to deeper and more meaningful learning. One of the groups was quick and wanted to design the gear by hand directly in Inkscape. This group learned a lot more about the program as a result.

3.Instructional Challenges: What challenges did you face while teaching this lesson, and how did you address them? Were there any specific points where students struggled with the technology or content?

I was lucky enough to be able to try out this lesson in two learning groups. In the first learning group, I noticed that my first approach was completely wrong, as this group was only supposed to design a cogwheel that was located in the middle between two cogwheels. Of course, it turned out that the size or number of teeth of the middle wheel doesn’t matter and the third wheel always rotates at the same speed. In the more advanced design, difficulties arose when several groups wanted to use the laser at the same time. It is also difficult to center the second gear wheel so that it also fits on a hole in the model.

4.Teacher Growth: How has this experience changed your perspective on incorporating technology like digital fabrication into your teaching? What skills or strategies have you developed as a result?

I have learned that digital fabrication should not always be at the forefront of a lesson. It can be difficult to adapt learning models so that learners can use them without further help. Also, as a teacher, I should not lose sight of the goal of the lesson just to be able to use digital fabrication. In the future, I plan to focus more closely on the curriculum and a fixed structure of planning a lesson.