Projects/Assignments for High School students

[csheppard5C4QK]

I'm going to be teaching Drafting 9 - 12 in the Spring and am looking for projects/activities that are out there that I can use with my students. I feel that there are a ton of tutorials on how to use the software out there, but can't seem to find step by step projects for high schoolers to use. To save my sanity I'm trying not to develop things from scratch. 

[dan.banach]

Hi @csheppard5C4QK 

Great topic. Attached is a PDF of a tutorial that I wrote. Let me know if this is helpful. 

Here is a link to Classroom projects that our Learning and Certification team created.

• Design a Moon Lander (plus educator notes)
• Design a Drone for 3D printing (plus educator notes)
• CAM 2.5 Milling

Does anyone have a project(s) that you use with your students?

Thanks,

-Dan

[user92398]

Task setting is a really intersting challenge and requires careful design, in my experince. 

Too constrained and it'll be boring, too abstract and it'll not be engaging, to challenging and it'll create anxiety...

So my suggestion would be to start with some nicley constrained tasks, around concepts they'll understand, perpahs reverse engineer an existing product (recreate it accuratley), then receate a "better" version of something like a chess set - you can challenge them to use a limited number of features per part e.g. the rook can only use extrude and chanfer, the bishop can oly use evolve and fillet etc. this will push them technically, not conceptually and avoid congative overload. 

Then you can move to some open-ended challanges, but i'd advise setting a time limit and asking them to keep a journal of the issues they came across /  solved / circumnavigated, rather then just looking at the outcome. The process is, while  learning, more important than the outcome. 

I worked with Printlab on their Make:able challenge, which is a very engaging context for a project to work towards: https://www.makeablechallenge.com/ 

The Printables contests are also very approachable, and you can even get your students to enter to, to make it "real" https://www.printables.com/contest 

Let me know if I can help any more, I love to collborate. 

Ed

[user92398]

A free book full of tutorials and projects: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JpHbCdBPEAOq_z8KGwK0mYL2qtwQX3bi 

[csheppard5C4QK]

Wow! Thanks so much!

[dan.banach]

Hi @user92398 

Thanks for sharing the link. Are you the author of this book or should the link go to https://www.cadclass.org/pages/book#Email?

Thanks,

-Dan

[edcharlwood]

I am not the author, but I work with / for CADclass. You can access the book by my link (which is also available on the website) or by the link you shared, same same, except one you need to supply an email address - which they like. 

[ryancousins]

I have reached out to CAD Class to see about using their program for my class. The book is really well done but I think my students would need the videos to follow. 

I'm curious if anyone has their HS students working towards any of the official Autodesk Certifications? For instance, the Autodesk Certified Associate in CAD for Mechanical Design? I think it would be nice to give my students a credential to walk away with. 

[edcharlwood]

The certification exams are great and are very rigorous, BUT they are pretty hard and lengthy. I don’t know the profile of your learners but it may be that some have the drive and need to go the “whole hog” but for others you could pretty easily design your own assessment and bring it to life by putting together a gallery of their work in a container like a Google Site, or on Instructables. 

[serdar.mutlu]

Thank you for sharing the PDF, Dan. It's nicely laid out. 

[serdar.mutlu]

This is great! thank you so much. I started learning on my own and this resource is just right. Thanks again.