As we work to prepare our students, the Mars Generation, for the future, here's a hilarious reminder of why we teach and why teaching digital skills is so crucial! A Millennial Job Interview by: LA Reel House Media In case the video clip didn't convince you, I've seen the transformation in student engagement and excitement when you use the right technology tool to enhance a lesson. Thanks to Alex, my fellow Crew member, for sharing Tinkercad - and how she uses it in her classroom to integrate space exploration - at SEEC. I've seen it used before in a related arts class setting, but it doesn't have to reserved for that. I hadn't considered using it myself with kiddos until now. I mentioned it to a sixth grade science teacher and she wanted to try it out, so this week, we planned and co-taught 3D Design in Tinkercad. It was a perfect fit with state standardized testing. It is a great tool with unlimited possibility for your classroom! Being new to Tinkercad and 3D design, I wasn't sure how it would go, but the kiddos blew me away! Tech Tool Feature: TinkercadTinkercad is a free online program that allows users to 3D design. The word tinker means to try to fix something, usually in an awkward manner. CAD is actually an acronym that stands for computer-aided or computer-assisted design or drawing. It depends who you talk to. Autocad is a software used by engineers to create models. It's exciting that now students can develop these engineering and design thinking skills. The great thing about Tinkercad's use in education is that if your students are 12 or younger, they can join your class with a code and you can monitor or view their designs. Older students can send screenshots of their progress, so you can keep tabs on them too. Their designs are also autosaved, so you don't have to worry about the frustration that comes with their progress getting lost. It is designed for 3D printing, however, you don't have to have a 3D printer to use it. 3D printers are great, but they are expensive and printing takes time. The more kiddos you work with, the less time each kiddo can use it. Plus, they learn a lot more from the process of designing and tinkering than they would from waiting impatiently for their design to print. Tinkercad also has step-by-step lessons and projects, so if students want to learn more, they can! Day 1Since it was a new tool, we gave them time to tinker. The first day, students created an account and tried out it's features. They entered the class code and were good to go. Day 2The second day, we gave them a design challenge and provided constraints. We wanted the challenge to be something the kids were familiar with, so we decided to have them create a pencil. I never thought telling kids to create a pencil could get them to work so hard! In addition to using Tinkercad to accomplish this, they went through the engineering design process, persevered, learned from and even taught their peers. It was awesome to watch. Originally, we thought about having kids follow along a teacher-led demonstration or doing a step-by-step direction video, but we decided, we should just let them try and they definitely rose to the challenge! We wanted the kiddos to be able to share their designs with each other, so they learned how to take a screenshot and add the image to a class Google Slide for a Virtual Gallery Walk. As we presented student designs for The Great Pencil Challenge, kiddos were cheering on their classmates, pointing out interesting features and congratulating their work!! Teaching TipThe slide deck was basic. Beforehand, I grouped kids by homeroom teacher and titled the slide with their name. It was in alphabetical order by last name, to make it easier to navigate. I got the idea because this is something that has been done for teacher professional development trainings that I've attended. I would highly recommend doing this, as it can get difficult to manage students adding their own slides when there are so many. Things get inadvertently deleted. Since kiddos had editing privileges, a student actually changed the transitions for a more dramatic presentation. We did review a few digital citizenship skills such as only typing on their slide, keeping backgrounds related and only commenting appropriately. Day 3After seeing the kiddos' proficiency with the tool, we introduced the real challenge...creating a 3D solar system model! Once again, we provided them with constraints. We also gave them a few resources and a rubric. Absolutely Awesome ResourcesAllows students to input numbers and calculate the scale. Allows students to see a visual representation of each planet, its features, compare its size to another planet, see images, video clips, a timeline and much more. Days 4 and 5Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was our solar system! Kiddos were given work time to create and make sure they followed the constraints and included all of the necessary components. As students finished, they self- evaluated and peer-evaluated using the rubric. Students wrote their initials to mark their thoughts on the rubric categories. They also recorded one warm (I like how...) and one cool feedback (I wonder if...) statement. In an effort to collect data and get insight from students, they completed a Google Form. The Google Form was focused on how students felt about their ability to use the different features in Tinkercad, evaluation of the program and how they think that they could use it in the future. ExtensionsThe students are going to create Screencastify videos to take us on a tour of their solar system model. We thought that this would be better than a screenshot because it might be difficult to find an angle that shows their entire model. Plus, we wanted students to be able to explain why they made their design decisions and if they would make changes, if they created another model. We also wanted students to evaluate Tinkercad as a modeling tool. Our solar system is large and complex, so a model can only do so much to represent the actual. Want to Try this in Your classroom?Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers (CAPCOM Conrad's Creations) store! A 5E Integrated STEAM lesson plan titled A Student's Guide to the Galaxy is now available that includes rubrics!! The link to my store is above the logo to the right. There's also an exciting new addition to the Hidden Figures Young Reader's Edition Unit - that I created last year - coming soon, so stay tuned! Peace, love and space exploration,
- CAPCOM Conrad
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AuthorApollo 13 fan. Educator. Lifelong Learner. Third generation Boilermaker. Space Exploration Enthusiast. Collaborator. Click Subscribe to stay updated!Archives
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