Script: Wow! You Systems Engineers have a lot of great ideas. We can’t wait to see how the drawings of your plans are turned into real, three dimensional, physical models! That way, the Ingenia Engineering Lab can reproduce them for our own homes. You have helped us so much in better understanding how the technology in our homes work together as systems. It’s almost time for you to get to work and create the models, but before you do, let’s make sure you have all the information you need to take your idea from a plan to a 3D physical model.
5 min Script: What does it mean for something to be in 3D? Wait for student response. A 2D image is flat, it only shows 2 dimensions. Many of the things we draw on a regular basis are 2D (if possible, show some examples of 2D student drawings). The letter D in the terms 2D and 3D stands for dimension. A dimension is the measurable size of something. In 2D drawings we can measure the length and height of the item drawn (demonstrate this by measuring the length and height of one of the 2D drawings you showed). When something is drawn or created in 3D, the dimension of depth is added. Depth is a little hard to understand, so let’s look at two images. (show the 2D and 3D images side by side)
TIP: If you have already completed the “Think Like a Designer” activities, relate this back to the 2D and 3D representations in CAD.
2 min Discuss:
Script: Engineers use detailed drawings to represent the different views or parts of their design. Let’s watch a quick video to learn more:
3 min Watch: Drawing Designs in Detail (https://www.teachengineering.org/)
TIP: This video does not include a voice over. Depending on your students’ needs, you may want to pause the video at certain intervals to voice over the important parts.
5 min Discuss:
Together as a class, walk students through transferring their drawn plans into design drawings.
5 min Script: In the last activity, you worked with a partner to create a plan to improve a system Use the following steps as you demonstrate and engineering pairs follow along with their own designs:
10 min Have partners review their plan and draw the system from all three views.
Tip: Have engineering partners take turns drawing the different views. Encourage them to talk and discuss how to best represent the different parts of their design.
Students will continue to work in pairs as they use their plans from Activity 3 to design a 3D model of the improved system using either Tinkercad or the available craft and recycled materials.
5 min Script: In the last activity, you worked with a partner to create a plan to improve a system in our class-designed home. Today, you and your partner will work together to create a 3D model of that system. You can either create your 3D system model using Tinkercad or you can use any of the available craft and recycled materials to create a physical model. Since our materials are limited to what we have in the classroom, you may have to adjust your plan.
First, talk with your partner about what parts of your plan will stay the same and what needs to change. Then, gather the materials you need to create the model and start building.
10 min Discuss Your Plan: Dismiss student pairs to review and discuss the existing plans. Encourage them to make changes to the plan based on the available materials or CAD capabilities.
55 min Make a Model: Support student pairs as they create a model. Circulate to support student collaboration. Ask questions like:
If students complete their CAD or physical models quickly:
Place students' system models on display around your classroom. Divide your class in half and have half of the students stand by their model to report out what system it is and how it has been improved while the other half circulates around the room to learn from their peers. Then swap groups.
Use the following sentence stems and question prompts to help students talk and ask about each others models:
Take photos or videos of engineering partner’s system models (or save the design in Tinkercad and share the link) to send home to families. Have students talk with their families about what they created and how they did it. Include questions for the family members to ask their student like:
