At Fall CUE 2022, I attended a session on Maker Ed, led by Stephen Callahan, in the San Joaquin County Office of Education Fab Lab. One of the lessons that we engaged in was designing a button in Tinkercad to 3D print. I decided to give the lesson a try with my 7th grade classes early in this school year, hoping to use 3D printing to get them more excited about programming. As I prepared to launch the lesson, I realized that this lesson would also be a great way to get them thinking mathematically and connect to concepts they were learning in their math classes.
The big idea in this lesson is to use coordinate points on an 3D coordinate grid (x,y,z - axes) to create a circle-shaped button of a specific size, with 4 holes cut out for sewing. Students use measurement to design the size of the button (measuring in mm and diameter/radius of circles), angle measurements, positive and negative numbers on the number line to evenly space out the sewing holes, and eventually repetition (loops + variable) to make the program more efficient.
Version #1 of button design lesson:
- students determine reasonable size for their circle-shaped button in millimeters (mm)
- we went large, with a 15mm radius button so that it was easy to 3D print later
- use radius of determined circle size to create base shape in Codeblocks (CCSS math 6.G.3)
- decide where to place first sewing hole
- halfway along the radius felt too close to the edge of the button for us, so we went with a coordinate point that was a little less than halfway (6,6)
- have students think about how they will place three more sewing holes on their button, evenly spaced around the circle (CCSS math 6.NS.6)
- students will use + and - coordinates to place four cylinder holes evenly around the center point of the circle
- students should notice a pattern in the coordinates and placement of the hole shapes
Version #2 of button design lesson:
- students learn to use a variable and angle measurements to place sewing holes evenly around a center point
- set variable to the starting point (0 degrees)
- discuss how to determine angle movement around circle (360/number of holes you want to place evenly)
- use change variable block to move number of degrees around circle
- use repetition (a loop) to move around the center point 4 times
- teacher might also consider introducing the idea of radial symmetry or translations (CCSS math 8.G.3)
Extensions:
As students got comfortable with determining how to loop around a center point, they began customizing their buttons shapes and the number of sewing holes the placed on the button. Custom designs allowed students an opportunity to play with different points on the coordinate plane and different angle measurements for movement around the z-axis.
Outcome & Reflections:
For us, this activity was a great opportunity for students to engage in purposeful math practice. Even just having to use a specific unit of measurement in context proved challenging for a number of students. They were used to the idea of millimeters existing, but when it came to using the measurement to build something, most students did not realize how small their 10 mm custom button would be until we took out rulers and visualized with a tool.
I also accomplished my goal of getting more of my 7th grade students engaged in their computer science learning. Not everybody loved the activity, but I can say that most students were excited about the idea of coding something that they would later be able to hold in their hands, and keep for themselves.
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