ImagineIT End of Year Report
My ImagineIt was taking learning and making it tangible with 3D printing and design. I have not done much with the 3D printer itself due to time constraints and planning constraints due to having a new grade this year to teach. However, I have expanded my ImagineIt to include 3D design which has opened up numerous opportunities and showed me that Science is so much more fun when we create designs and make them come to life with materials that are tangible. I believe that the students have learned so much more by designing experiments and testing them out instead of reading about them or watching them. I have made my Science time all about the experiment. We still do readings but it always accompanies something that the students play with or create to demonstrate their learning. We are now on Plate Tectonics and the students are enjoying cutting out continents and physically piecing them together. In two weeks, the students will research volcanoes and come up with a design to create in class. They will make their designs come alive and see them in action.
These are some students' responses to how they like designing and creating from their designs:
“I like having 3D designs and I do think it might help because we could be able to see it up close rather than just pointing to is on paper, we will be able to actually show where it is on the object. We can also demonstrate the places that we are learning about as well and they would want to do more things like that so they might and could try to get their work done too. I do like the idea as well so I think we should do this.”
“I think that we would learn more having 3D designs because in that way so we could actually looks like and feels like.I think I would like having 3D designs it would be better than watching videos.”
“I would like to have designs in 3D because you get to experience to feel, touch it, and move it around. I would like to learn more like this because I get to see how people invent 3D designs and how it works. I don't wish that we had more videos of experiments and readings instead because we get to experience it in real life.”
I am rarely up front teaching. I feel like my role is to make sure no one is bleeding and no one is crying as the students take responsibility for their own learning. I just guide them with the topic. My goal is to continue this next year and to integrate more 3D design into math to make that more tangible as well. We did a good job with that with our Geometry unit where the students created shapes to figure out volume, area, and surface area and it helped with their learning.
These are some students' responses to how they like designing and creating from their designs:
“I like having 3D designs and I do think it might help because we could be able to see it up close rather than just pointing to is on paper, we will be able to actually show where it is on the object. We can also demonstrate the places that we are learning about as well and they would want to do more things like that so they might and could try to get their work done too. I do like the idea as well so I think we should do this.”
“I think that we would learn more having 3D designs because in that way so we could actually looks like and feels like.I think I would like having 3D designs it would be better than watching videos.”
“I would like to have designs in 3D because you get to experience to feel, touch it, and move it around. I would like to learn more like this because I get to see how people invent 3D designs and how it works. I don't wish that we had more videos of experiments and readings instead because we get to experience it in real life.”
I am rarely up front teaching. I feel like my role is to make sure no one is bleeding and no one is crying as the students take responsibility for their own learning. I just guide them with the topic. My goal is to continue this next year and to integrate more 3D design into math to make that more tangible as well. We did a good job with that with our Geometry unit where the students created shapes to figure out volume, area, and surface area and it helped with their learning.