Constellations

thingiverse

In this project, students take charge of designing and printing constellations based on http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:180681. To create their masterpiece, the stars were first printed and then painted with glow in the dark paint from Glow Inc., which costs $10 for 1/2 oz but can cover hundreds of models. The paint's bright glow is truly impressive. How I Designed This Troubleshooting Student Designs The most common issues that students encountered with this project: Using the wrong rotate tool and rotating around the wrong axis - kids struggle to use Tinkercad's rotate tool, so when a shape gets askew it's often easiest to just delete it and replace by duplicating a nearby shape. Connections between stars are too thin - connectors will often become quite thin when they are stretched and rotated into position. It can be tricky to widen them when they are at an angle. A useful trick is to duplicate the connector, shift it slightly with the arrow keyboard keys, then group the two to make a double-width connector. Pushing shapes down through workplane or lifting up off workplane - check student models carefully before printing and examine the first layer in the slicer software. Connectors not solidly connected to stars - have students inspect their model from all angles, as it can be hard to tell if there is a small gap. Standards NGSS Overview and Background In this project, students design and print constellations based on http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:180681. After printing the stars on the constellations models were painted with glow in the dark paint from Glow Inc., 1/2 oz for $10, which is enough to paint hundreds of models of this type. The glow is impressively bright. Lesson Plan and Activity Students selected a constellation visible at some time from their hometown as the topic of this project. Students completed a research report about their chosen constellation that included these research questions (see example). If students use the Internet for research http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm is a good website to start with. Name and picture of constellation When is it visible? Story of the constellation, what does it represent? Try to find at least one alternative idea of what the pattern represents from a different culture What are the brightest stars in the constellation? Are there any notable galaxies, nebulae, or star clusters in the constellation? Students used Tinkercad to design the constellation. The stars were represented with cylinders 3 mm high and 4 mm wide for average size stars, and 5 m and 6 mm wide for exceptionally bright stars. The stars were connected with rectangular struts 2 mm high and about 3 mm wide. Models were printed in translucent PLA. The teacher then painted the stars white, and then painted them with glow in the dark paint. Project: Constellation Objective Design and print a constellation. Audience This project was completed as part of a 4th-grade science unit about astronomy. Preparation Students selected a constellation visible at some time from their hometown as the topic of this project. Steps Students completed a research report about their chosen constellation that included these research questions (see example). If students use the Internet for research http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm is a good website to start with. Name and picture of constellation When is it visible? Story of the constellation, what does it represent? Try to find at least one alternative idea of what the pattern represents from a different culture What are the brightest stars in the constellation? Are there any notable galaxies, nebulae, or star clusters in the constellation? Students used Tinkercad to design the constellation. The stars were represented with cylinders 3 mm high and 4 mm wide for average size stars, and 5 m and 6 mm wide for exceptionally bright stars. The stars were connected with rectangular struts 2 mm high and about 3 mm wide. Models were printed in translucent PLA. The teacher then painted the stars white, and then painted them with glow in the dark paint. Results This project was completed with two groups of 4th-grade students, assisted by 8th-grade students. All the students were able to complete one or two constellation models in one 40-minute period. The student-created models are included here. The glow-in-the-dark paint from Glow Inc. worked out great and produced a very bright glow.