MAKING - COOKIES AND SNOWFLAKES!

I learned about Digital Harbor Foundation about a year ago through an AIMS workshop on 3D printing. I knew the foundation offered classes for educators and workshops for students, but I was not aware of the FREE resources available on their website! The Digital Harbor Blueprint Projects page is the perfect place to start when looking for project ideas and inspiration related to all types of making!

3D PRINTED COOKIE CUTTERS! 

Knowing many of our Middle School students enjoy baking, I was thrilled when I came across Digital Harbor's 3D Printed Cookie Cutter Project. I knew this would be the perfect project for one of our monthly after school STEM activities! What could be better than giving the girls an opportunity to create their own cookie cutters and then make cookies to test out their cutters! Using the Cookie Caster website, anyone can create their own unique, custom cookie cutter with just basic computer skills! I am excited about this activity because it will introduce our girls to 3D printing by creating something that they can actually use!  While I typically only like the girls to print objects they have modeled themselves, I do think this is a great introductory activity that might spark their interest in computer modeling in order to create and print more.

3D PRINTED SNOWFLAKES!

Last year around this time I tweeted about how I used a super cool tool, doodlefab.ninja [created by Shawn Grimes for Digial Harbor] to turn a image into a 3D printed ornament in just a few simple steps.  I recently revisited this idea when I came across Digital Harbor's Bubble Wand Project. Using this method, we will create 3D printed snowflakes from traditional paper snowflakes. The key is by creating 6-pointed paper snowflakes using black paper, we will be able to upload the image of the paoer snowflake to doodlefab.ninja to produce an .svg file to upload and manipulate in Tinkercad. 

So rather than draw something that will be printed, students are able to first created the object out of paper! What I love about this project is the marriage between making with paper and 3D printing. This project has limitless possibilities and is another great way to introduce 3D printing with very little computer modeling.

I am so excited for the new year when we will see how the girls respond to each of these projects! With any new technology it is often hard to imagine exactly how it can be used in the classroom and how it can really transform what we are doing. While we continue to work to find ways to meaningfully integrate making into the classroom, we are focusing on introductory activities that will give our girls a taste of the possibilities that making can offer! I will be sure to share the results of both of these projects next year!