Month: November 2023

During our class we squeezed into the small rooms at the UNBC Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George. To learn about the advantages of 3D printing and how we can use it in our classrooms. 3D printing can be used to print almost everything. We learned how different printers print different things. What kind of things you can print and how far you can push the technology. We were shown examples that move straight from the printer, flat surfaces and even printing characters. So many things can be printed and if you can’t find it you can create it. With free programs like Tinkercad and Openscad printing can be don in a class with a 3D printer. Students can create their own designs and play around with different objects. 3D printing adding material Wood cutting subtracting material.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

Bill Gates

3D printers can be useful in printing learning materials for many different subjects at any grade level. Objects can be used in the BC Curriculum by incorporating objects in Science, Math, Art, ADST, and English. An octopus that is 3D printed can be used to show how Octopi move and look during a science lesson. The legs can be chained and be used in math; counting the links. If the legs were removable it can be used the same way; asking the students to show a certain number, “show the number 10” etc. With Highschool it can be integrated in the same way just using more in depth coding or in final projects in metal or wood works or a computer class. It can be used as a fidget for those with a disability. Different materials print different ways. There are materials that dissolve in water, materials that are soft, biodegradable and ones that are solid.

Also, 3D printing is being incorporated into the medical field. Printing different body part and organs. That can be used to help treat or replace missing pieces. Usually used with materials that are dissolvable. More research needs to go into this. I feel like this would help a lot of people but can be very expensive.

Introducing this can inspire our students to change the way we do things as a society or change the world.

At UNBC there is also kids camps through “Active Minds” that include elements of STEAM (Mostly summer camps) including camps like:

“How to Engineer Everything”

“Be an engineer for a week! Put your thinking cap on as you jump headfirst into the practical application of science and math made fun. Get firsthand experience designing, constructing, and testing your creations. Problem-solve, work, play, and laugh through the week as you engage in the many disciplines of engineering that are critical in the development of our modern society.”

Which can be good to introduce these kinds of camps and resources to students to learn more about STEAM and how it’s more than just worksheets.

With 3D printing, we can actually create structures that are more intricate than any other manufacturing technology or in fact are impossible to build in any other way.

Lisa Harouni

Being outside in bad weather seems to be a pattern in this course. It does show that learning can still be done when you’re cold and not in your comfortable bubble that is the classroom. We went to Cottonwood Park which is a local park of trails next to the Nechako and Fraser rivers. I’ve been going to this park since I was very young. My family always loved going down to the river. We’d always throw rocks into the river, skip rocks, even learn about the environment around it. Thanks to my grandpa, he always has information about rocks and mountains. The paths that were there when I was kid are not all there anymore. They’ve been washed away from the river flooding. The farthest bridge had not always been there it used to connect with a path, but it washed away one year so they had to make a bridge. It’s not as fancy as the first one but it works.

This weather this time was cold winds and snow. We used the walking curriculum looking and focusing on elements that we would have missed or not have taken the time to see, especially in the winter weather. Movement, shapes, and faces are the walks we did. The movement that I saw was the clouds, the branches when the wind blew and how the branches grew above. Shapes was mostly in the trees. The branches created shapes in the air and there were more shapes that were man made. Faces were carved in the trees, were carved by a local artist Elmer Gunderson, who has been carving and sculpting for more than 25 years. So, if you don’t take the time to look around you may miss all these things. We also saw some ducks that started walking towards us. My group talked about do we lose the imagination do the ability to look for these as we get older or do, we not take the time to look for them? I think it’s both. We are always rushing and focused on other things we forget to take in the beauty that is the environment that we live on.

Learning from the land is educational but it also connects us back to where we live. We see things we might have missed on our own.

Here is another way of coding without the use of computers. Noelle Pepin came into our class and shared her master’s project called “Beaded Tweets.” Connecting the culture of beading with coding. Using 0’s and 1’s to create a message in beads. She shared that it can be used on a loom to create more detailed coding with smaller beads but in class we only had time to just use the bigger beads. We just used eight letter words, but it can be done to create sentences or even longer messages. Using 8 bead language, and ACII code. It can be adapted to unit ideas that you come across by integrating the local knowledge while following local protocols. Is what your teaching truthful? Is it something that can be shared? Are you the one that should be sharing it? and is what you’re sharing how it should be shared? Understanding these elements help it the lesson and teachings be authentic. When it’s authentic then the purpose of having Indigenous education is being met. It’s not meant to be done randomly or just because it needs to be done. When it comes to working with Indigenous culture in classrooms, use local knowledge and local protocols. Infuse meaning into the work or project. Noelle Pepin focused on the idea of setting a purpose. There should be a purpose. There should be a connection not just doing something to cross something off the list. Integrating Indigenous elements doesn’t have to look the same. This project is mixing digital and traditional, Nisga’a elders have said it’s like a “dance in both worlds”. Noelle connected to what the students use every day or see every day to beading that is part of many Indigenous cultures.

• Can be an exploration of one’s identity.
• Purpose/make a connection.
• Choose a message.
• Make a plan/design.
• Setup materials
• Beading

Coding is not just with computers. You can code with red, black, blue and green markers, white paper and little robots. Little robots called Ozobots. The Ozobots we had, had little faces on them or were designed to look more robotic. They read the code that is drawn on paper using the coloured markers. The main path is drawn is black. These markings move the Ozobots around. You can make it spin, go faster slower, backwards, forwards and turn left and right. Many people created designs to for their path. My group did a infinity sign for it, there was also a Christmas tree done. Thanks to the Exploration Place we were able to enjoy and experience these materials. Having these resource outlet helps us as teachers be creative and engage our students rather than just a worksheet. Making connections with coding and creativity without computers. Coding can look and be done by many things. When I thought of coding I thought of computers but this post and the next will show you as well it can be anything. Learning activities can look different and be fun.

Working with Ozobots connects to the 7 Principles of Learning:

1. Learners at the Centre– We were able to create our own path with our own trial and error.
2. The Social Nature of Learning– Working in groups
3. Emotions are Integral to Learning– Being connected to the little Ozobot and being patient in creating the path
4. Recognize Individual Differences– All of our paths were different and which codes were used were different
5. Stretching all Students– All of us had to think and take the time to create our paths
6. Assessment of Learning– Creating our paths and following the criteria of using 5 different codes and continuing movement
7. Building Horizontal Connections– Cross connecting/cross curricular with coding, art, and design

The art gallery tour was a really cool experience. There were two art installations “Nonreturnables” and “Dismantled Worlds”.

“Nonreturnables” had multiple artworks from different artists using plastics and commenting on the use and destruction of plastics. The one that stood out to me was the one by Carlyn Yandle, called Scaffold. Long pieces of plastic weaved together scoffolding onto each other. It was very tempting to touch but of course we were not allowed to.

“According to the Government of Canada, more than 30% of all plastic waste comes from the construction industry. Included in that category is the building wrap material of polyethylene fibers commonly known as Tyvek.”

carlyn yandle

In “Dismantled Worlds” artist Jude Griebel created artworks commenting on the climate crisis and how we treat our world. There were three artworks that stood out to me. One was a sculpture of a pile of animals intertwining with each other. It is Jude’s idea of the food pyramid. There is even a butterfly included because he ate a butterfly as a child. Which takes something that looks and means so powerful and adds a little bit of humour to it. I took it as how we eat everything not thinking of where it come from. Especially meat and other proteins we tend to forget where they come from unless we hunt for them ourselves.

Meticulously crafted figures personify overconsumption, dissolving the boundary between landscape and anatomy.

Jude Griebel

Another one was a dismantled and burnt city with a giant plant in the center. We were told to look at a piece for longer than 10 minutes taking it all in. Imagining ourselves in it and really looking at the details. I chose the plant city one to look at. It was powerful. To me it shows how we destroy our land but the plants still thrive and grow. Or after we leave how the earth can regrow again. Plus on a non serious note it reminded me of the Lorax how the city around him was taking the earth fro granted.

The last one by Jude that stood out to me was a creature made of shells on top of plastics and garbage. This one was right in the middle of the room, so when you walked in that’s the first thing you see. Which can be taken as the creatures that once lived on the ocean floor now have to work together to ge through the garbage below.

The final activity of the day was creating our own creature out of play dough that had its own purpose in the world. Which was fun to see everyone’s creations and which ones would fit into the themes of the instalments.

For teachers this is a good place to bring your students because they’ll get exposed to different kinds of art and different installations as they move them around. They’ll learn different ways to experience art and how powerful art can be. Plus an activity that connects them to what they’ve seen so they too can be the artist.