I'm Jon Barber. I'm a UVa grad, I make, repair, and learn tech/comp sci/media with middle school students near Charlottesville, VA. The Force is with me, but I am not a Jedi ... yet.
How to Adobe Illustrator for a lasercutter(This is MY basic video how-to for a scribble. You will use these skills to make much more advanced lasercuts after you make a BETTER how-to, for sharing with Mr. B on Google Drive and this website, Screen-Cast-O-Matic (now ScreenPal).
Students, parents, and guardians, you can always call Henley and leave a voicemail by dialing 434-974-4700, selecting 1, and entering my extension number (51164), but here are some other ways to connect with me:
Delicious Tater Tots (students have to find this in Schoology and break it out of Schoology before bookmarking!)
Daily Slideshow (students have to find this in Schoology and break it out of Schoology before bookmarking!)
II. Your charger has 2 pieces, and, therefore, needs 2 labels, one on each part. You need a flag on your removable cord affixed with clear packing tape (your first and last name!) and you need to tape over your label with clear packing tape:
New Way (this year)- notice the shininess of the packing tape!
Old Way (last year)
III. You also need to pin shortcuts on your taskbar to the 2 apps we download:
Arduino IDE- We download this from Software Center (quick download)
Adobe Illustrator- We download Adobe Creative Cloud from Software Center, THEN we download and install Adobe Illustrator from CC. These will both take a LONG TIME! Close as many apps and tabs as you can!
Arduino
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Illustrator
IV. Come show Mr. Barber when you're pretty sure you're going to get a good grade (not when you've done only a little of the Laptop Check ... I don't want to enter in a 4/14 F!!)
The Goal? To create a storage solution for computer mice that will protect the mouse, the mouse cord, keep them out of the way, and that is durable and easy to use.
Learn from the past:
1.
Notice how easy it is to hang the cord through the bottom of the brown holster. Compare it to others where people stuff the mouse cord in (tangled and unattractive)!
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2.
The Good? This is thick and durable! The Bad? It's been made too small, too tight, making it difficult to fit the mouse in, much less the cord hanging out of the bottom.
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3.
This one hangs low. It's a lucky thing that it has lasted and not broken. The bottom shows an innovative way to hang the cord, but the user must thread it through every time. Usually, students just stuff it in there, because they are in a hurry to leave.
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4.
Notice how thin the sections are. It's cracked and broken in several places. There also seems to be wasted plastic at the top.
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5.
Compare these two. Both are hard to use at the bottom, but one wasted MUCH more filament, while one focused on saving material.
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6.
This is probably my favorite design up there. Easy to use, durable, smooth, curved edges.
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Guidelines for Success:
Measure computer mice (with calipers) to figure out how to make your holster SLIGHTLY larger.
Figure out how you measure and create your walls, etc. the correct size to start with.
Learn how to chamfer and fillet edges, to save filament. What other strategies can you use to save filament?
Plan your pilot holes, like you did for your plaque. We will use screws but you need the correct-size pilot hole.
Notice the holster you like using the most. Emulate it, but improve on it! What do you like about it? Think about my comments above!
Think about how you have to place your holster on the build plate so that it will print correctly!
We won't print massive or teeny holsters that obviously won't work.
I plan to print only the best designs, though all designs can get a grade if you show me when I can type in a grade and talk to you about it.
This post is under construction (see what I did there?)
Usually, my engineering classes build doghouses for needy dogs throughHouses of Wood and Straw.It's a wonderful service program, provides a LOT of valuable learning in the woodshop, and H.O.W.S. reaches out to local businesses, like Blue Ridge Building, to donate the wood. I typically have Guidance schedule as many Engineering classes in the fall so that they can participate in this and save as many dogs as possible from a freezing winter. This year, H.O.W.S. is holding off with builds, etc. because of the high price of lumber. I have had to pivot to a new project that doesn't have someone donating wood. I immediately focused on helping the school with hall passes and directional signs while I noticed the lack of outdoor seating for all of our outdoor lunches (which are out there, of course, due to Covid). The only drawback is the high cost of lumber and hardware.
I'm currently pricing everything it will take to build 15 doghouses (5 per class) for Henley at both Home Depot and Blue Ridge Building Supply (now called Cardinal Home Center), but I fully expect it to be quite costly.
My assistant principal Becky Fisher and principal Beth Costa have encouraged me to go ahead with the process. I really do feel like this is both a useful and a worthy service project for my kids in my engineering classes, in addition to providing Henley students with a valuable resource, as we spend so much time outdoors during Covid.
I have found Home Depot's plans: https://www.homedepot.com/c/ah/how-to-build-a-picnic-table/9ba683603be9fa5395fab902da03929 to be HORRIBLE. My class and I are interpreting them and making new plans as we go. The pictures don't match the materials or the directions, so we are even taking pictures. Here is our slideshow, complete with plans and guidelines for excellence:
Hallpasses & Hallway Signs for Henley Middle School
I am blessed to have a lasercutter/engraver in my classroom at school. This wonderful tool allows us to design and make things on Adobe Illustrator that we can cut, engrave, sometimes assemble, and frequently decorate.
This is my How To Video that all students use to create their own "lasercuttable scribble." I purposefully make it simple and my design, well, awful. I challenge them to make something much more worthwhile if they can. The winners lasercut their designs on cardboard. I don't tell them what to design, so it's completely their choice, as long as it has a clean outline, and they engrave something cool inside it.
We use THIS kind of cardboard for this, and for all of our prototyping:
I ask students, parents, other teachers, really anyone that can, to bring cardboard in and my students cut it, using boxcutters, into 12" x 12" pieces themselves. Some of my students come up with truly surprising and wonderful designs! Check out my Instagram feed for some of the Barber Shop's greatest hits!
At this point, I am challenging my Engineering students to create 4' x 4" birch hall passes for teachers that can hang from a lanyard with a Hornet on it (our school mascot), while I simultaneously challenge my Design & Construction students to create 12" x 12" birch signs with a Hornet's News (get it?) to direct 'lost souls' around our school:
Everything has to be a vector, using my original video, so students typically trace some clipart for the decoration on each. Otherwise, the lasercutter/engraver will take HOURS to raster a picture. The student engraves/lasercuts originally on cardboard and shows the boss (me) and their consumer (the person asking for the project) for feedback, before they iterate. The iteration process can repeat several times. When it is deemed acceptable (as Tin Cup tells us, in golf and in life, perfection is unattainable), we cut/engrave on birch for the final product.
I will be posting pics of the prototypes AND final products on my Instagram and Twitter feed, but here is a sneak peek of the first 6 that I lasercut today after school:
Here they are on Adobe Illustrator!
Here is a video of the lasercutter engraving
These final products will be headed out to teachers next Orange Day!!
The hallway signs are still in progress. My students are lasercutting the final cardboard prototype that we will hang in the halls as part of the final feedback process.
The biggest roadblock I've run into is a line of students, waiting for the lasercutter (which is an awfully nice problem to have, right?) ... we will be lasercutting for WEEKS now. Lasercutting and engraving on birch takes almost 4 times as long, too! It's completely worth it to help out other teachers, teach students empathy and the design process. Next week, we move into the woodshop to build picnic tables for outdoor eating here at school during Covid!
Before you work on TinkerCad, your folks at home have to fill out my Virtual Permission Form!
This was my first TinkerCad Project this year. I followed along with this blog entry that has short videos and pics throughout. At the end, I changed the filename to my username, and the words NameKeyChain squished together and capitalizing the first letter. (YOUR username is your initials and a number or a letter)
By clicking on the square with 3 dots and 3 lines to the left of my username (if you hover over it, it says "recent designs"), I could find where it's saved in the cloud. After clicking on it, I clicked on more designs and it shows me all the designs that I've ever done, with this, the most recent one, at the top.
We will be taking a ScreenSnip of this and putting it on a Google Doc, along with future CADs. Remember you Screensnip on your ACPS-provided laptop by hitting <Windows> <shift> <s> at the same time!
