Summary
In this technology lesson, students design and build a model home using their choice of either a 3D printer or laser cutter. To prepare, they brainstorm natural disasters, research architectural defenses, and explore the history of housing. Applying these concepts, they create and test homes designed to withstand apocalyptic scenarios, then reflect on their learning experience.
Essential Question(s)
How does technology advance safety and reliability in housing?
Snapshot
Engage Students use the Collective Brain Dump instructional strategy to create a list of natural disasters.
Explore Students conduct guided research to find how architects plan to defend against weather.
Explain Students apply the concepts from the Explore to the use of 3D printers and laser cutters. They explore a timeline about the history of houses to gain knowledge on building concepts.
Extend Students design and print a home to survive apocalyptic scenarios. Their assembled homes are tested.
Evaluate Students reflect on their experience and discuss lessons they have learned.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Guided Research handout (attached; one per student)
Surviving the Apocalypse handout (attached; one per student)
Student Apocalypse Rubric (attached; teacher copy)
Designing the Apocalypse handout (attached; teacher copy)
Whiteboard or smartboard with marker
Internet connected devices (one per student)
Destruction materials (see the Designing the Apocalypse handout)
3D Printer
Laser Cutter
Sticky Notes or Stickerss
Pen/Pencil
Engage
25 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to facilitate the lesson. Transition through slides 3-4 and discuss the Essential Question and Lesson Objectives in as much detail as you feel necessary.
Display slide 5. Using the Collective Brain Dump instructional strategy, ask students to think of natural events that can be devastating and have an effect on manmade structures. After students have completed the activity, make sure that the list includes at least the following: flooding, tornado, earthquake, tsunami, and meteor strike.
Explore
40 Minute(s)
Pass out one of the Guided Research handouts to every student. Display slide 6 and explain that students will work with a partner to research different ways to make houses sturdy enough for different natural disasters. Before students start working, take 1-2 minutes to brainstorm as a class about different search terms that relate to this topic. Consider displaying the list somewhere at the front of the room. Allow students time to work.
After students have completed their research, display slide 7 and explain that now students will share their findings with others. Group students by the natural disaster they focused on and have them share what they found. As a group, have them create a list of top five must-haves to survive this natural disaster. Have them share this list following your classroom norms.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Move to slide 8. Students will now view a timeline of an abbreviated history of construction and building materials. Have students navigate to the History of Building Materials infogram and read through the entire timeline. Once they have had time to finish the timeline, ask what similarities and differences they noticed over time.
Move to slide 10 and ask students the following question:
How does what you learned from the timeline apply to 3D printing or laser cutting?
Using the Elbow Partners instructional strategy, have students work together to formulate an answer. When all of the students have completed their answers, ask them to share with the class.
Extend
65 Minute(s)
Display slide 11 and explain that students will work in teams to design a house that can survive an apocalypse consisting of a variety of natural disasters. Give students at least one full class period to design their homes. Explain to students that they will render their design using Tinkercad software. Remind students that when they are finished, they should send the file to you for printing or laser cutting. Have students create their groups.
Once students are in groups, pass out the Surviving the Apocalypse handout to every group. During the design process, students should calculate the cost of materials and submit that information to you when they submit their file. Record these for each project on the Student Apocalypse Rubric handout.
The next day, display slide 12 and provide students with their prints or cuttings. If they need to complete extra steps to finish their home (e.g. gluing for those who used the laser cutter), make sure to add them to the cost and/or time columns.
Set up all the homes displayed in a central area and move to slide 13. Have each group use the Gallery Walk instructional strategy by placing a sticky note or sticker on the one house they would most like to live in. Record the total number of votes for each home in the livability column on the rubric.
Move on to testing the model homes using the disaster scenarios from the Designing the Apocalypse handout. For each disaster each home survives, award them one point in the “# of disasters survived” column of the rubric.
Total up the number of points from all of the columns to determine the winning group.
Evaluate
20 Minute(s)
Move to slide 15. Using the Exit Ticket Instructional Strategy, ask students to answer the following questions:
How would you have changed your design if you knew the tests?
What else do you think you would have done differently?
What observations did you make regarding the differences in the 3D-printed versus laser-cut homes?
Have them turn in the exit ticket to you to use for future discussion.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collective brain dump. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/111
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringer and exit tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125
K20 Center. (n.d.). Gallery walk/carousel. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/118
K20 Center. (n.d.). Laser cutter engraver. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/4451
K20 Center. (n.d.). Tinkercad. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2166
Lay, J. (2015, June 5). A visual history of housing through the centuries: An animated exploration of what “home” has looked like throughout human existence [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoCZnboThfk
The Verge. (2017). This hurricane-proof home can withstand powerful storms [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ge-9rARXfo
