Overview
Manufacturing Chocolate: Students use 3D CAD software, printing and mold making in order to produce a manufacturing process for a chocolate bar. Students also present their product to "sell" it.
Manufacturing Chocolate: Students use 3D CAD software, printing and mold making in order to produce a manufacturing process for a chocolate bar. Students also present their product to "sell" it.
This lesson definitely came with it's own set of challenges. Due to time and resource constraints, I grouped students into groups of 4, with 2 of the students working on the mold and the other 2 working of the wrapping and presentation. In the future, this would be changed to working in pairs, since one of the main issues that came up was students feeling that their design was "left out" since it wasn't what the group chose.
The idea of making and selling chocolate resonated well with the students. Many of them have been selling chocolate for fundraisers throughout the school year, so it was interesting to show them what kind of work went into everything before selling the product. The students all had prior experience with the CAD software, since they've been practicing using it's features throughout the semester, however they hadn't physically produced something they they created. There was a large disconnect between the CAD model, the student's expectations and the final product. The overall designs felt "safe," as in the students were unsure of what they could produce, so many stuck with simplistic designs that resembled regular bars. The only constraint I had placed on the designs was the size. In this case, since the students did not have much experience with the technology or the equipment, it might have been better to give them a more descriptive design brief to help focus and develop the design. To add onto this, the classes where this lesson took place are made up of mainly freshmen. Many aren't familiar with each other and their group work has been limited this semester.
To contrast this lesson, I did a cardboard challenge with my Juniors. They have been working in distinct groups all semester and were familiar with the medium and tools. I din't have a structured lesson for this or goal. I simply asked them each to think of 4 things they could make (without giving them any context). Then, after telling them that the main building material would be cardboard, asked them to find others with similar ideas and agree upon one to pursue. So when I told them they had no limits, their designs were much more varied and creative. They worked towards problem solving as issues came up and were able to produce final products that they felt comfortable sharing in front of their peers. It also helped that every one of my Juniors have interacted with cardboard in some way shape or form.
Seeing these lessons side by side really highlighted part of my maker philosophy. My Juniors had control over the process, and were therefore able to produce products that they had a much stronger emotional connection to. The freshmen, on the other hand, did not have that same level of comfort with the process, and their products didn't share that emotional connection. I could look at my junior's products and tell who made what, while the freshmen's designs were more uniform and less expressive. In the end, I'm still happy with the results of the chocolate bar lesson. Many of the issues that came up were resource based and can be altered fairly easily to accommodate future classes. These lessons also highlighted how different these resources were for the students. The freshmen had only begun to use their CAD software. The vast majority did not have any way to play with the software outside of school since the program we use is license based. I could have given the student information to an online CAD software such as tinkercad. However, even though all of our students are issued a Chromebook for the year, many opt out or don't have a reliable way to access the internet outside of the school.
If I were to implement this lesson in the future I would do two things differently. first, I would provide the students with a cheap, physical way to create their 3D model, such as clay. More students have had experience with things like play-doh than CAD. If they could model what they expected to see first, then used the CAD software to make a "perfect" version I believe it would help with the translation from physical to digital space. Knowing how their product looks before it comes out of the printer may promote more creativity and allow the technology to appear more accessible to the students who are not yet comfortable creating something If they were more familiar with the process, the medium and the tools, I believe their designs would have been more varied and pushing the limits of the constraints.
The idea of making and selling chocolate resonated well with the students. Many of them have been selling chocolate for fundraisers throughout the school year, so it was interesting to show them what kind of work went into everything before selling the product. The students all had prior experience with the CAD software, since they've been practicing using it's features throughout the semester, however they hadn't physically produced something they they created. There was a large disconnect between the CAD model, the student's expectations and the final product. The overall designs felt "safe," as in the students were unsure of what they could produce, so many stuck with simplistic designs that resembled regular bars. The only constraint I had placed on the designs was the size. In this case, since the students did not have much experience with the technology or the equipment, it might have been better to give them a more descriptive design brief to help focus and develop the design. To add onto this, the classes where this lesson took place are made up of mainly freshmen. Many aren't familiar with each other and their group work has been limited this semester.
To contrast this lesson, I did a cardboard challenge with my Juniors. They have been working in distinct groups all semester and were familiar with the medium and tools. I din't have a structured lesson for this or goal. I simply asked them each to think of 4 things they could make (without giving them any context). Then, after telling them that the main building material would be cardboard, asked them to find others with similar ideas and agree upon one to pursue. So when I told them they had no limits, their designs were much more varied and creative. They worked towards problem solving as issues came up and were able to produce final products that they felt comfortable sharing in front of their peers. It also helped that every one of my Juniors have interacted with cardboard in some way shape or form.
Seeing these lessons side by side really highlighted part of my maker philosophy. My Juniors had control over the process, and were therefore able to produce products that they had a much stronger emotional connection to. The freshmen, on the other hand, did not have that same level of comfort with the process, and their products didn't share that emotional connection. I could look at my junior's products and tell who made what, while the freshmen's designs were more uniform and less expressive. In the end, I'm still happy with the results of the chocolate bar lesson. Many of the issues that came up were resource based and can be altered fairly easily to accommodate future classes. These lessons also highlighted how different these resources were for the students. The freshmen had only begun to use their CAD software. The vast majority did not have any way to play with the software outside of school since the program we use is license based. I could have given the student information to an online CAD software such as tinkercad. However, even though all of our students are issued a Chromebook for the year, many opt out or don't have a reliable way to access the internet outside of the school.
If I were to implement this lesson in the future I would do two things differently. first, I would provide the students with a cheap, physical way to create their 3D model, such as clay. More students have had experience with things like play-doh than CAD. If they could model what they expected to see first, then used the CAD software to make a "perfect" version I believe it would help with the translation from physical to digital space. Knowing how their product looks before it comes out of the printer may promote more creativity and allow the technology to appear more accessible to the students who are not yet comfortable creating something If they were more familiar with the process, the medium and the tools, I believe their designs would have been more varied and pushing the limits of the constraints.