5th Graders Demonstrate Tinkercad to Teacher-Librarians

These three 5th grade girls enjoyed learning about TinkerCad, a free 3D modeling program in order to create projects for the Dekalb County School District Tech Fair. They placed 2nd and 3rd in the 5th/6th grade 3D Modeling Category and became very passionate about designing 3D models. Unfortunately, the 3D printer was not working so their models were never printed. This was not part of the Tech Fair requirement though, it was just disappointing. But, they came to learn that all of the the hard work was in learning how to manipulate and transform the the geometric shapes into "real things." 

These awesome students were eager to have an audience to share their knowledge. Since the district is investing in 3D printers which will start appearing in all of our school libraries, I invited our Teacher-Librarians to "take a class" with these students as the teachers. The girls planned out the flow of their session, walking through the steps of a logical presentation in their minds. They also inserted questions to engage and learn about
their audience. I do not want to say I was shocked, but I was very pleased at the way each student "played off each other" and added value to the last person's thought as if it were rehearsed. Each young lady was poised and articulate. Also they all knew how to share the space and nobody dominated the allotted time. The festivities had to move to the desktops when the Open GL was not up to date on the laptop connected to the Promethean Board. This problem is become very tiresome as it happens on a lot of our computers and needs to be addressed but to end on a happy note, this day was a highlight in my teaching career!!!! NICE WORK GIRLS!!!!

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