Coding, Apps, and 3-D Models for Kids

Richard Bryne, in The Digital Shift from the Library Journal, discusses helping students “make things” in his article, “Teach Kids How to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools”.  Some of the learning sources he recommends are: Daisy the Dinosaur, which teaches programming basics; Code Monster with lots of coding lessons complete with instant feedback; Blockly, which uses visuals to teach about if-then logic; MIT App Inventor for creating smart phone apps; 123D Design for designing 3-D models; 123 Catch to turn pictures into three dimensional models; and 3DTin that lets students build 3-D models from scratch or with the help of templates.

Bookabi

There are 2D and 3D characters, fun backgrounds and stickers, and lots more in Bookabi by Tamajii, Inc. Your students can make up their own stories by using the resources available and adding speech bubbles. Students can take their own photos and use them as backgrounds in the story.

Tellagami: Fun with Short Stories

What fun! Tellegami for iPads and iPhones is a free app, which lets you and your students create stories called Gamis. With the app, you can customize characters and personalize them using your voice and your photos. There is absolutely no learning curve. In fact, it’s so easy to use that a kindergarten student sent a Gami to me. Backgrounds (see below the background with my Corgi) can be changed, characters can be resized, and Gamis can be share on Facebook, Twitter, through eMail, and SMS. Think of putting Tellegami to work in student projects, invitations, journals, and content review.

Augmented Reality in Your Classroom

T|H|E Journal tells us that the promise of Augmented Reality (AR) “is enormous.” That’s because it’s an emerging technology, which has the power to transform classrooms making our interactive whiteboard classrooms look like the Dark Ages of technology in education. 


Mobile devices with GPS and photo capabilities, already in many classrooms can, even today, access apps that offer a glimpse into the potential of AR.  You might want to try the free Apple app String and the free Android app AndAR and think about what is possible in classrooms and field studies when augmented reality enters your toolbox of resources.

Replicators in Our Schools

It’s Star Wars in our classrooms with the arrival of replicators—3D printers. The “printers” work by reading designs developed by students using 3D software and then producing the designs through a layering process with an extruded plastic material. According to Worcester Prep (Maryland) science teacher, Colleen McGuire, “Some of my students are excited to ‘print out’ their own robotic designs without being constrained by the shape of Legos. Others are seeing the creative design potential to produce personalized products from jewelry to architecture. What we are doing gives our students a glimpse into the world that will be their lives.”

At the Southview Middle School (Minnesota), eighth graders are designing and “printing” better cup holders for automobiles. Teacher Peter Grimm says that the addition of the 3D printer has motivated more students to experience the engineering lab. Grimm explains that the printer adds excitement to learning because it brings “designs that existed only in students’ minds to life.”

Just think of what 3D printers can do now and what will be possible with this technology in the future.

Our World Is Changing Fast

Will 3D printers change the world as we know it?  Are Bot factories showing us the way to the future of manufacturing?  At the Bot Cave in Brooklyn, the company MakerBot uses its Replicator 2  to create products with eco-friendly materials.  It’s just the beginning of 3D printing, meaning that the output is often not exactly impressive. But, did you know that custom dental fittings are created through 3D printing and that many buildings, consumer items, and electronic gadgets were “prototyped on a 3D printer”?  In Japan, you can buy a 3D “action figure” of yourself, but you’ll need a head scan to do this. Students at school or home can turn their CAD designs into jewelry, figurines, and geometric puzzles. One day, 3D printers will be able to help you replace broken parts for products in your home, create fancy foods, and let you put your imagination to work to produce exactly what you want. The fact that these printers will soon be able to create electric circuits opens a whole new realm of possibility.  It seems to be important that just like our students were introduced to the first computers, they should be introduced to 3D printing. It is the beginning of what could become, as the Chris Anderson’s article in Wired says, “a Macintosh moment.”

My Robot Nation

My Robot Nation is a fun place for kids and adults. On the site, simple robots can be designed, decorated, and checked out by rotating them on the computer screen.  These are not robots that receive commands from computer programs, but instead are like small (2”-6”) statues. Creating and observing the robots is free, but once finished, the robots can be purchased and sent to your address. You can also send a robot gift to someone, who will be given the challenge of creating his or her own robot. These personal robots are brought to life off-screen using a 3D printing process and “environmentally-friendly additive manufacturing”. They emerge from the process in colored high-performance composite resin.  The robots would be too expensive (starting at $17.99 for a 2” robot) for a school project, but art teachers may want to consider using the free design function of My Robot Nation and then having their students try to recreate their design using materials available at school.