a Learning Curve
From a Table Top Zoo to a TinkerCad Giraffe
Purpose: design something on tinkercad to be 3D printed
I think when we started this, our group thought it would be super easy and we struggled a lot. I think this activity was the first one in which I really felt the iteration process and a lot of failure.
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We struggled a lot. You put a block down and then move to a different viewpoint and your block is way off in space. We really tried during this activity to create something that resembled a giraffe. I’m still curious how we could create the more detailed and accurate shapes and how much trial and error it would have taken us to actually create the giraffe we ultimately copy and pasted. I had to have a growth mindset here in order to keep going and because I was excited to see if we could get our giraffe to look like the more realistic one.
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Failure. The importance of trying again and having to keep tweaking what we were doing in order to make it work. It really showed me how important it will be to motivate students because if they’re not invested in this portion, I can see it being really easy and really tempting for them to give up.
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Teamwork. Collaborating on a tricky challenge is so important. It made so instead of giving up, I could take a step back and hand the mouse over to one of my group members and let them struggle with it for a bit. Then I could watch how they grappled with the problem and get new ideas.
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Positive Atmosphere. Without a positive atmosphere I feel like this would have been impossible. As peers walked by they were curious and supportive, never judgemental. And Ryan offered suggestions for different things we could try. It made it possible to take risks and keep trying.
These things, failure, teamwork and a positive atmosphere, would not have been possible without the third tenet of culturally responsive pedagogy: “demonstrating caring and building learning communities” (Kye, 2020). Kye’s article “Who Is Welcome Here? A Culturally Responsive Content Analysis of Makerspace Websites” talks about seeing collaboration, reciprocity and shared values as being evident in spaces that support this tenet, and I feel those are especially present in EDCI 487. The class vibe is one of overwhelming support and safety to take risks as our cohort works toward a common goal, teaching, with shared values like feeling safe in the classroom and learning.
Kye, H. (2020). Who Is Welcome Here? A Culturally Responsive Content Analysis of Makerspace Websites. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research, 10(2), 1–. https://doi.org/10.7771/2157-9288.1190
Honorary mention to Karis for creating this giraffe with the 3D pen. She also struggled but had a bit of experience with it from our previous class.
