TinkerCad Reflection

The 4th grade students have been creating miniature golf courses in TinkerCad. The teachers are tying in geometry to the lesson by having the students incorporate right triangles, obtuse triangles, acute triangles and various other shapes. The students are designing their golf courses on paper first, then are modeling them in TinkerCad. Once the students have completed their models, the teachers are going to 3D print them.

Some things we learned:

• Give the students some "free" time to investigate the TinkerCad software. There is a learning curve to navigating and creating objects in the program. This will take a day or two.
• Reduce the 3D standard build size of TinkerCad to 85mm x 85mm. This will make is print directly on the 3D printer without having the scale down the final model.
• Match up their hand drawn designs to the 3D model by adjusting the scale. We used a 1/8" scale and 1/4" scale on paper. This makes it so the students can directly line up their shapes from the graph paper to the 3D model.
• Create a ground layer that is a ~3mm thick rectangular prism
• Have the student "sink" their shapes into the "ground" before they group everything. This should prevent the shapes from being detached when printed.