I asked a couple of people on Twitter if I could share their projects today. I have been fascinated watching them post pictures of their 3d printed lithophanes. In the past, lithophanes were traditionally etched in thin, translucent porcelain that revealed the artwork when backlit. 3d printing technology, however, allows for lithophanes to be created … Read more
One of the many things I didn’t know anything about when I first started teaching at Advanced Learning Academy was working with textiles. My skills were limited to hand-sewing buttons. Even though my in-laws had given me a sewing machine a decade ago, I still didn’t know how to thread it or why in the … Read more
Last nine weeks, I co-taught an Electronics class for our 7th grade elective. I say “co-taught” even though my colleague, Kat Sauter, actually did nearly all of the planning and teaching – and I learned nearly as much as the students. One of the projects that the students did was to take apart old battery-operated … Read more
For anyone new to 3d design, Tinkercad is one of the best options out there. This free online design tool is an excellent introduction to creating .stl files that can be saved and imported into your preferred 3d printer slicing software. When I think of the dearth of 3d printing/design thinking resources that could be … Read more
This is Yeti, the 3-year-old bulldog we adopted last September. As you can see, Yeti likes the laundry basket. I kind of like it, too, because when Yeti falls asleep with his head propped up he doesn’t snore as loudly. Win/win. Unfortunately, Yeti has some kind of leg injury still to be determined. Despite his … Read more
In the past, I have taught students about biomimicry/biomimetics, in which designers use inspiration from nature to create new products. (The Youth Design Challenge is a great place to find resources for this.) Biodesign takes things one step further by actually incorporating nature, often still living, into innovative artifacts that can be purely for decoration … Read more