This project is still in progress, please visit the "Story" page to read about it's development

Step 1: Mini Project

Before making their own versions of the rotating tile sculptures, we need to scaffold some skills. Students need to get experience with the laser cutter (and Adobe Illustrator), as well as with the shop tools and constructing tessellating shapes. To do this we will build picture frames to display 2 dimensional tessellations that the students will design in Math and build in Physics with me.

​By building frames, students will learn to use the main tools in the shop and I will have the chance to reinforce my standards and practices regarding tools and building.

​Student will design, critique and lasercut their patterns in math class. 
These two documents are summary assignments that they will do, one for math and one for physics. In my class, I want students to start practicing their technical drawing and detailed note taking. In math, the students must show their source of inspiration and their process used to make the tessellating pattern

Student Work Here

Step 2: Draft 1

In my first draft, I made my machine with 4 points of rotation, and pairs of gears were going different speeds. The shapes were made from cardboard. I think this is a good requirement for their first draft. What's different is that I will have students use the same plywood for their gears as we will in the final, so that they can reuse what they make if they wish.
What Worked?
The students mostly used my model as a direct inspiration, which I'm ok with. When they try to make a copy of my work, there are inevitably small differences, so they are able to get feedback about their techniques and abilities. I had the students use thicker plywood than I had prototyped with so that they could re-use parts for their final versions if they wanted. These versions of the machine took 3 weeks.