Steven Lamp, a junior at Skyline high school in St Vrain Valley Schools in Longmont, Colorado along with Michelle Tran, a fellow Skyline student, taught students at Alpine elementary how to use basic CAD (Computer Animated Design) programs to build a working block puzzle. Each student utilized a simple software to create an individual piece that was later printed out and then added to the other pieces to create a puzzle.
Students received the opportunity to work with the software SketchUp, a completely free professional architectural synthesization program that sounds vastly more complex than it was for the students to use. What the students were doing was dragging and dropping inch by inch squares to mirror previous built blueprint designs. The students seemed to enjoy the process and collaborated with each other, making learning the software fun and easy.
“Students teaching students was a very informal setting and I feel that students felt this, but rather than goof off students felt curious and more easily asked questions to me and Michelle. I was dubbed with numerous nicknames such as Lampe (my last name is lamp).”
Steven is also asked about his thoughts on the following questions:
- Why did the students do this activity?
- What is the hardest part about working with younger students?
- What did students find hardest about these programs?
-
play_arrow
Tech Talks: 3D Printer Class kgnu
Tech Talks is produced by students at the Innovation Center in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont. You can hear it Friday mornings at 8.25am.
-
play_arrow
Tech Talks: 3D Printer Class kgnu
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
