So this summer has been very interesting in terms of making things. At the end of this past school year I decided to learn more about 3D printing and other "MAKE-ing" that I can get more experience with. By doing this, I can hopefully incorporate some of these technologies into my teaching. So far as a Spanish and Photography teacher, I have had my students produce a few tech-driven projects including a cooking video, a self-promo stop motion video (both of which were in Spanish), and a PSA-themed stop motion video for my photography students. Some of these projects you can view on this blog below!
To start my Maker summer, I decided to visit the
MakerLab at the
Harold Washington Public Library (the central downtown branch of the
Chicago Public Library). In a classroom-sized room on the 3rd floor, they offer free workshops to the public on a variety of Maker technologies including 3D printing, Laser cutting, Vinyl cutting, sewing, Arduino tech, and many others.
My first project was a 3D printed collage/ relief sculpture using
Tinkercad and a 3D printer from Makerbot. Since the suggested theme was literature, I decided to use the Waldo and Woof characters from the
Where's Waldo series by Martin Handford. To create the initial character images, I searched for an image of Waldo's face and an image of Woof in Google. Once I found the jpeg images, I imported these into Inkscape, a free open-source vector drawing program. I traced them to create the vectors and exported them as .svg files so that Tinkercad could open them. Once I had imported them, Tinkercad automatically turned these files into 3-dimensional shapes that can be adjusted and manipulated. I made a base for the 2 figures to stand on, placed them, and exported to Makerbot's print software for printing. Voila! Press PRINT and wait for the printer to do its thing...
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Waldo in Inkscape.
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| Woof in Inkscape. |
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| The finished "collage" in Tinkercad. |
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| Makerbot print utility software and print preview. |
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| Milie working hard on my print! |
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| Almost done... |
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| Tadaaaa!!!! |
Some of the other things I've made in these workshops include a Mexican sugar skull pendant, Laser-cut cat earrings and medallions, a headphone holder, a modular sculptural toy, and a dog-themed electronically cut bookmark. The common tech that we used for almost all of these projects was Tinkercad and Inkscape which are both free to use. Also, when you do a workshop, written instructions are provided as is the chance to get free printing time if you visit the Makerlab workshops at least 4 times (you get a stamp card). There are other tech that's offered at the Makerlab like Arduino and Fusion 360, among others but I haven't been able to check these out yet but hopefully before the summer is over I can do a few more workshops. Thanks Makerlab and CPL for everything!
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| Modular toy |
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| Headphone holder |
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| Sugar skull pendant |
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| Cat pendant |
