Tinkering with Tinkercad

Students who have an interest in creating 3D objects may enjoy working with Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a website that provides students with opportunities to create 3D objects. The website has a plethora of ideas and resources. Another tool that can be helpful in guiding students as they work on Tinkercad is YouTube. There are many people who have experience using Tinkercad who have created content focused on walking people through how to create different objects using Tinkercad. I would encourage teachers and parents who are interested in utilizing this tool to spend some time exploring the Tinkercad website and looking at Youtube videos focused on creating Tinkercad objects.

Once students have created their 3D objects, students can create a file of the object that they have created and they can have that object made on a 3D printer. Some schools have 3D printers. If a school does not have a 3D printer, communities often have businesses that will allow people to use their 3D printer. In my community of Emporia, one of the businesses that has a 3D printer is the Fab Lab. I stopped in a few months ago to have something printed on the 3D printer and I was able to take a video of the 3D printer printing a 3D object (see below).

Tinkercad is a great tool to help students design objects. I would encourage students, teachers, and parents to do some tinkering with Tinkercad.