I often dwell on why it is important that we foster the maker in our students and along with this, consider what sorts of activities are best for doing this. I haven’t had a lot of time lately to get going with all the MakerSpace activities in our Library that I wish to put in place. The main thing for now however, which seems to have taken on a life of its own, however, is 3D printing. The use of this tool is providing quite a lot of inspiration for in answering both of these questions and there is one student in particular who is demonstrating many of the answers.
Our 3D printer has been terrific for engaging students in the design process and then for providing them with a fairly immediate and real outcome for prototyping and iterating. It’s been fantastic to witness the development of the related skillset in students as young as 7 but also to think about the sort of mindset that can lead to a product or prototype being made better each iteration. My main problem at the moment is actually keeping up with demand so that students can print many iterations of their prototypes. Along with this, of course, is the need to consider the many different students who are all needing the same kind of output throughout their design and making journeys. Some of the younger ones in Yr 2, for example, simply need one print-out to inspire them to go further and deeper.
I’ve been observing one of our students over the last month or so and working with her to try to satisfy her need for output and success. I’ve also been observing the presence of ‘grit’ which is often spoke about as being a quality that points to potential for success through schooling and life in general.
Katelyn has been designing a number of models using TinkerCad and I was impressed that she was choosing to do this as many of our students were using pokemon models others had created and then modifying them. This didn’t worry me as I think this is one point in the journey to designing one’s own model…..but I have always maintained that I wanted students to design their own eventually.
When she started with this task, Katelyn was able to print a successful model fairly quickly (see below) after only a few iterations but then gave herself a more complex task which was an R2D2 type model. This second model was also tied to an English task which required of them to create a toy of some kind and then to advertise it.
The first couple of iterations of this model all had design faults. Their wheels were too far away from the base to print properly or the base wouldn’t print successfully without scaffolding……and each time, she would stop the printer and simply go back to the drawing board (in this case the TinkerCad design interface). She would be at my door soon after enquiring as to whether we were ready to print again. The persistence she was demonstrating was quite amazing.
By the end, she has worked through 15 iterations to get this print successfully produced. She announced this very proudly with a note of awe in her voice that this had been the number. You can see below that she looks very proud of herself.
So, what is important in terms of the Maker Mindset? It’s all the things in these images – persistence, resilience, perseverance, the opportunity to fail and then the ability to push through this. This opportunity to fail is really quite significant as she learnt much more from the failures than she did from the first model which worked after only a few quick tweaks. She learnt how the printer works and how the software worked to best suit the capabilities of the printer. She learnt about how models should be designed and how she should hold her ideas lightly so that her designs can get even better.
Connected to this last point above is the importance of having a process which names different styles of thinking and allocates them to a stage in a process which scaffolds inquiry and design. Design thinking is the process which we are using to do this.
Katelyn does look delighted at her products in the photo above after about 15 iterations. The best thing however, is not what we can see …….it’s the mindset she is developing and exhibiting…….which is being fine-tuned by a combination of her will to succeed and the opportunities which are available.