Project: Making Fossils with Sculptris

thingiverse

This educational project can be found within MakerBot in The Classroom, and its primary focus lies in utilizing Sculptris, a free digital sculpting tool that employs brush tools to manipulate a digital ball of clay, effectively generating organic shapes. Students will learn how to incorporate Sculptris into the study of a geological timescale and fossil unit by creating complex shapes reminiscent of fossils. Additionally, they'll gain insight into setting up and printing models with curved surfaces, even if their class doesn't cover a fossil unit, making Sculptris an excellent choice for projects requiring organic shapes. Overview and Background: In this project, students will study the evolution timeline and create creatures that lived during different eras of the timeline. Working in groups, they'll research an assigned period, design a creature, select which part to model as a fossil, print it, and then share their findings by explaining what the animal might have looked like and why. Lesson Plan and Activity: The lesson is divided into three steps and comes with visuals within the downloadable PDF in the Thing Files. Here's how it's structured: Step 1: Introduction Lesson Students study the geological timescale. - Discuss the geological timeline, its components (eon, era, period, epoch), and purpose. - Have students break out each of these into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Assign teams to research a paleozoic, mesozoic, or cenozoic era period. Have the teams share their discoveries with the rest of the class. Explain what fossils are, how they form, and have student groups create creatures that could live in their assigned periods. Step 2: Design Shell Fossil See video below; download sculptris_project.pdf from Thing Files: - Open Sculptris. - Flatten a sphere into a disk. - Elongate one side of the object. - Draw a helix indent. - Add detail lines around the helix. - Finishing touches and exporting/printing. Step 3: Design Tooth Fossil See video below; download sculptris_project.pdf from Thing Files: - Form the basic starting shape. - Flatten along the symmetry line. - Draw the side surfaces of the teeth. - Crease the top of the teeth. - Add finishing touches and exporting/printing. Extension Activity 1. Design and print one fossil per student in 3-4 class sessions; include additional 1 - 2 sessions for extension activities with groups of 4. Materials Required: - Download Sculptris or SculptGL. - Chromebook or Computer per student. - Print time (about 1 hour per fossil). - Digital sculpting fossils handouts. - Extension activity materials (pourable plaster, Vaseline, sand, clay, paper plates, casserole dish, rock cleaning tools). Assessment and References: Knowledge Checks include assessing digital sculpting techniques versus other modeling tools, Sculptris strengths/weaknesses, navigating Sculptris, organic shapes printing tips, supports/rafts in MakerBot Desktop usage, scaling objects in MakerBot Desktop, fossils formation process, and paleontologists’ work. Objectives: - Understand geological timescale components (eon > era > period > epoch). - Knowledge of biological adaptation. - Fossil-making process understanding. - Work understanding of Paleontologist. This educational project is suitable for 3rd through 6th graders in the Science and Biology subject.