CAD software has rapidly grown in ease of use and in power, so much so that many elementary, middle, and high school students now use it regularly to design and 3D print all sorts of things. Students and teachers usually start off with creating models of things like buildings, animal cells, or designing stand-alone objects. Making the jump to engineering “real-world” objects that physically fit together with existing things and with each other is a bigger challenge: “No, please don't create a two-inch hole for a two-inch insert.” However, students are capable of meeting this challenge with a little bit of skill-building and practice.
In this workshop on July 23rd at 5:00 PM EST, Kris Swanson will present the series of simple projects and best practices that he and his co-workers at Pine Crest School have used with Middle School students in the 7th Grade 2D3D Design course, as well as on the Competitive Engineering teams.
Using Tinkercad, he will lead you through one of the initial projects in this series. You will create your own custom holder for one of the dozens of remote controls you probably have sitting around your house or classroom. This project helps you and your students work through a simple process - sketching and measuring the real-world object, then custom designing another object that fits together perfectly in CAD software and when fabricated in the real world.
To participate in this workshop, you will only need a few things:
A standard ruler (make sure it measures in mm)
A set of calipers such as:
A remote control to design a holder for - find one that you always seem to be misplacing!
A Tinkercad account (tinkercad.com). Kris will discuss how he uses Fusion 360 with more advanced students, but we will use Tinkercad for this workshop.