Notes from the Class XI Mandarin shadow puppet project at @BrearleyNYC. #STEAM #MakerEd

Yue Tang is one of my amazing colleagues at The Brearley School. After we installed a Glowforge lasercutter in the CoLaboratory, I approached her about doing a shadow puppet project with her Mandarin class. I’d watched puppet performances during some of my travels, and it seemed like it would be such a fun and creative project to put on a show at school. This year, we collaborated on shadow puppet shows in two different grade levels, Class VIII and Class IX!

Before embarking on the project, I showed Yue’s students examples of shadow play using the following two links:

1. Wikipedia Shadow play  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_play
2. Three little pigs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCmFWJjc4RA

Separately, I had seen an ad to attend a Crankie Theater show in Coney Island. I wasn’t able to make the show, but I followed links to learn more about crankie theaters and located building plans to construct my own crankie theater. I loosely followed the plans shared on this site: http://www.thecrankiefactory.com/348971243. I also gleaned information from this blog post: http://williamtherebel.blogspot.com/2015/01/thoughts-on-making-crankie-box.html (Note the image in the gallery above showing a quick semicircular 3D piece that I designed and printed on one of our Ultimaker printers to hold the two main dowels upright in the puppet frame.)

Here is a snippet of the Class IX play: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fVEMs-ZR4UQwzQ2xwRcw0srMk6W80dUW/view?usp=share_link

Here is a snipped from the Class VIII project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jGsC9-tolFgJgyko23VlKmaBZRz4uj02/view?usp=sharing

Prototyping a wall mount for alligator clips to hang in the @BrearleyNYC #CoLab. #MakerEd @ultimaker @thingiverse @tinkercad

In the CoLaboratory, we have a large bin marked ALLIGATOR CLIPS that was becoming a bit of an organizational nightmare with 5th graders struggling to free a wire from a tangle of metal-tipped tumbleweeds. I figured a wall-mounted solution might be helpful, and I asked my 5th graders for their opinions and suggestions.

My first physical prototype was a scrap of cardboard affixed to the side of a shelving unit with a large binder clip. Then, I mocked up a simple comb-inspired design with Tinkercad and later added perpendicular bits to the edges of the tines (like a rake) to keep the wires from slipping out. I belatedly noticed we have alligator clips of different thicknesses, so I also made another version with wider spaces between the tines.

I posted the STL files to the Thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5547674

I couldn’t find a satisfactory wall mount for a mini glue gun, so I made one with @Tinkercad and an @Ultimaker. You can find it on the @thingiverse… @BrearleyNYC #MakerEd #STEAM

Problem Finding begat Problem Solving!

It troubled me that students would plop the glue gun on the counter top in between squirts, leaking glue and causing a burn/fire hazard. After searching for a wall-mounted solution, I ended up making my own design in @Tinkercad and printing on one of our @Ultimaker printers.

After several incarnations (and a small pile of plastic), I settled on a relatively simple model that will hold a mini glue gun against the wall during use or while cooling. I posted my design to @Thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5377878

Thanks to @jumekubo for inspiring my design for a more universal “pocket document camera” that can be affixed to most any device and mirror your hands, drawings, pen marks… #MakerEd #ArtEdTech

I came across a tweet from John Umekubo where he shared a 3D printed design for a pocket document camera that can be used to help a teacher display or record hand motions, sketches, images, or written actions or explanations without needing a second device, an external document camera, or an elaborate setup to balance a camera above your work space! The pocket document camera acts as a sort of periscope to reflect anything being done on top of his keyboard to anyone in his Google Meet. 

John’s post went a bit viral on social media, and he compiled a comprehensive blog post where he listed a bunch of ideas/prototypes created by himself and other like-minded makers. I used our 3D printers in The CoLaboratory (Room 8L in the 610 building) to make two 3D printouts of these pocket document cameras — one that fit my MacBook Air and one that fit the Class III/IV Chromebook. I reached out to our colleagues in the Lower School who are teaching remote pods and told them about this little helper and shared ideas for how it might be used. Joy Barbosa (Class III) asked for a class set, and I printed 13 of these to be sent home to her students. Luckily, materials were already being gathered to send home to the remote Class III learners, and I was able to include this tool in the boxes.

Ju Yeon Kim (Class K) also liked the idea of having her remote Kindergarten students prop their iPad vertically and project whatever they are drawing or manipulating with their hands. Since I didn’t find any existing models for an iPad, It occurred to me that it would be much more helpful to have a universal device-agnostic mirror holder. I used Tinkercad to modify John’s design and created a model which can lay flat against any laptop or tablet (Macbook, Chromebook, iPad) and requires tape, clothespins, or binder clips to affix to the device!

Here’s a link to my most recent design on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4635969

I ordered a bunch of 2″ square mirrors from Amazon (recommended by John in his blog post) and affixed them to the plastic holder with a hot glue gun. Now to make a few dozen more…

Also, here are some mirrors/holders you can purchase:

1. MirrorMeThis from BrightFingers
2. iPEVO Mirror-Cam
3. Hudoo base for iPad
4. Clip version of Hudoo base for iPad