Week 2¶
Assignment¶
Based on this week experience I thought about how can I integrate this use of vinyl in my classroom and how can my students be included in the process. During my visit in the FabLab I learned how to use the vinyl cutter to create stickers and paste them on a t-shirt and also in posters.
Identifiying the problem: as a team with my students, we thought on posible solutions for a especific problem we are facing in the classroom. The problem: kids most of the time eat inside the classroom during indoor recess and also on days we have birthday celebrations. Even when we have a board with the classroom jobs sometimes the ones in charge forgot they are the ones who need to revise or check on the areas to stay cleaned. Developing Solutions: so we are going to design a t-shirt with a cool “Go Green” sticker on it to be easy to identify the kid or students in charge. That especific student will wear it during the time we have the cleaning routine, so everyone knows he/she will be monitoring us and also can ask us to pick up the trash with confidence.
Process¶
Once we as a class know the product we wanted to have, I downloaded an image from the web and incerted it on the cricut program, followed the steps the program showed and had the sticker ready to heat on the t-shirt. After four tries, the t-shirt was ready to be worn for one of our students.
Reflection¶
We recently had an activity with the students where they were doing presentations about countries they researched, we went to work at the fablab for almost an hour, and without saying or suggesting too much, kids worked on their posters using many tools from the fablab (photos at the bottom), they are too excited now, asking when are we going back to the fablab. All kids worked on teams and after checking on their classmates work some of them now want to use the stickers too, for their lockers, classroom decorations etc. this kind of activities are so much more interesting for my students, I can see how motivated and curious they are.
After all, I think with this experience I’m having so far, I feel comfortable either creating material to work in class or letting my students know how to use tools in the fablab. I know that by letting them using tools we need to set clear rules and give clear instructions all the time, so everyone knows what and how to do it.
Previous experience with the vinyl cutter: My first and only experience so far has been this one, from choosing the design to placing it on a T-shirt. At the beginning, I did not realize which side of the vinyl should be positioned correctly for cutting, so I was unable to use the color I preferred because I cut the vinyl on the wrong side. On my second attempt, the vinyl did not adhere well to the fabric of the T-shirt, which led me to think that it might not have been compatible with the material or that I might have used the wrong temperature. For the third attempt, it did stick, but only partially, which made me question whether the time and temperature were correct. Finally, on my fourth attempt, I used a different T-shirt, new vinyl, and kept the same temperature and time, and it turned out perfectly, as shown in the images previously shared.
Today I can say I feel more comfortable with the DF for kids more than with kids, but once I start doing projects with the kids I’ll feel as much secure as I am now.
Tools¶
- Vinyl Cutter
- t-shirt
- Cricut program
- Iron