Tinkerplay

I’ve been playing around with the app, Tinkerplay.  I started with my MakerMonday group of students and successfully printed one to the delight of the child who made it!

Then students in our FACES Special Education class designed characters during their Makerspace time.

Finally, I brought in a class of 22 third graders who are reading The Indian and Cupboard.  They designed action figures to place in the cupboard.

 

From those three trials, here’s what I’ve learned.

  • The smaller the scale, the easier it is for the action figures to break.  I found 75% was perfect.
  • Students can easily be given parameters to keep their figures from getting out of hand.  In the beginning, I had one action figure with 75 pieces!  I limited students on the amount of filament (grams) and the estimated print time.  They had no problem with this.
  • Saving is a bit complicated.  I attached Tinkerplay to our school dropbox account and saved to there.  I found that it automatically named the file with a number based on the time of day it was saved.  That meant, theoretically, if I didn’t clear out the folder before a group began saving the next day, things could get messy.  I also found that it was important to stagger saving so that people didn’t save on top of each other.  One save per minute.  I showed the students how to find the file name after it had saved so they could write it down.  It made it much easier to know whose was whose later.
  • Taking a picture of the finished creation helped students put them together when printing was finished.

IMG_1910

Mouse Traps with 3rd Graders

Mrs. Weikle’s class, with the help of Mr. Clark, visited the Makerspace for a STEM activity. They created Mouse Traps that contained at least one simple machine and one 3D shapes. Then they used Pic Collage to display their creations. Take look below!

Take a look at a few of their traps in action!

 Cross posted at Oak Grove Digital Archive.

Conversations with Characters

Mrs. Barger’s class has been reading Howliday Inn and Blood on the Water.  They designed a 3D model of a character from one of the books, then used the app Chatterpix to animate their characters.  Take a listen below!

 

Chester from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Harold from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Jill from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Harold from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Harrison from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Chester from elemitrt on Vimeo.

VASCD Presentations

Meg Swecker and I presented at VASCD on Augmented Reality. Here’s our presentation:

You can download other files from our presentation here:
VASCD AR Dropbox Folder

Alisa Downey and I presented at VASCD on STEM and PBL in the Differentiated Classroom. Here’s our presentation:

You can check out our blog here:
STEM Crazy Teachers

Spookely STEM Project

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Kindergarteners in Mrs. Kelley’s class created pumpkins (with moving parts) after listening to the story, Spookley the Square Pumpkin.   Then students used the app, Story Kit, to take their own picture and record their voices naming and describing their pumpkin.

Their final creations are below!  Turn up your volume and take a listen!

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Hack-O-Lanterns

2nd graders created motion activated “Hack-O-Lanterns” using Little Bits and basic circuit/robotic skills in the Oak Grove Makerspace. They light up when someone walks by!

Check them out in action below:

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