Science & Tech - Sculptris

Teaching students skills that will be relevant when they are adults can be tough. As teachers we spend a lot of time theorizing what skills will make current students marketable, employable, and successful. That often means exploring uncommon areas of technological learning. 

One big aspect of our technology time is learning about tools used for 3D printing. One of the programs we have grown to love is Sculptris. It's a 3D sculpting program using computers. Sounds easy but the mechanics are complex.

Masked as an art program, Sculptris actually provides a lot of opportunities for developing tech schools. Students learn how to :  

-recognize file types associated with 3D printing

- saving and sharing documents into shared drives

- use of rendering programs for design and coloring

- visualization of objects with multiple dimensional

This type of modeling and rendering are used in various fields ranging from movies to merchandising. 

Here are a few samples of our work so far.

Getting to Know Each Other

So much of a student's success in school comes from their ability to connect with peers and teachers. Each year we select specific activities for our classes geared toward helping establish those connections. In doing so we can promote comfort, trust, and friendships.

In these Hula-Hoop challenges, students either worked as a large group or in small team to move a the hoop. For some activities, that meant carrying the hoop with only your feet. In other activities, that meant linking hands and moving each student through the hoop. 

Coordination and communication were really important parts of the success of our groups.

 A little silliness certainly didn't hurt either. 

The value of these early relationship building activities go far a single grade. These early, silly activities can lay the foundations for well developed connections that can follow students through school. 

"Child development experts agree that close friendships can be good for children for a number of reasons. They can provide shelter and protection from traumatic childhood experiences, teasing and rejection among them. They can help boys and girls navigate their way through the social minefields that exist at school." - Scholastic 

- Mr. B