• Tuesday, 6/29/2010, 10:00am–12:00pm, CCC Lobby A, Table: P19
• Description: Explore ways in which elementary and secondary teachers are using personal fabrication systems to create three-dimensional objects and support STEM learning in their classrooms.
• This poster session will feature Celine, a fifth grade student from Crozet Elementary School. Celine will be fabricating personal designs with the software and hardware that was used in her school this past year. You can read more about Celine and her interests on her wiki.
• Representatives from Aspex Software, Fablevision, Software MacKiev, and Graphtec America will be present to answer questions.

2. The FabLab Classroom: A Digital Fabrication Laboratory for Schools

• Tuesday, 6/29/2010, 2:00pm–3:00pm, CCC 205/207
• Description: The FabLab Classroom empowers students to invent simple machines and other usable products. Learn about digital fabrication in math, science, and language arts.
• This formal session features my adviser, Glen Bull, as well as Arlene Borthwick, Mike Charles, Sarah McPherson, Nick Sanham, Peggy Healy Stearns and Paula White.

3. Exhibit Hall: Canon USA, Inc.

• Location: Booth 1924 (floorplan)
• Experiment and play with digital fabrication equipment at the Canon booth!

4. Exhibit Hall: Software MacKiev

• Location: Booth 840 (floorplan)
• Peggy Healy Sterns, creator of popular software titles like The Graph Club and Stationary Studio, will be demoing a new piece of digital fabrication software that she is developing with Software MacKiev. I will also be there as time permits.

Kris recently finished a project, one based on a design challenge created at Hofstra University, that incorporated students’ knowledge of surface area and volume as a means for designing cereal boxes. It is quite obvious that both he and his students were very engaged!

This picture is of a digital design created in England using Aspex Tabs MST and fabricated in Charlottesville, Virginia using Graphtec’s Craft-ROBO CC330l-20.

This model of the UVA Rotunda was developed in the Curry Center for Technology and Teacher Education. It illustrates the conversion of rotary motion (the turning of the crank) to reciprocating motion (the up and down movement of the Rotunda dome). It was developed as a pilot project to explore the types of instructions and information needed to successfully share the design for a moderately complex digital fabrication project. Instructions are listed below.

Download, print, and cut (with Craft-ROBO) the following Adobe Illustrator files:

• Rotunda_Brick_Walls
• Rotunda Roof
• Rotunda Parts
• Rotunda Cam Follower

Click to enlarge.

Step 1: Begin by putting the brick walls together to form the frame of a box.  Then add the bottom to stabilize the box. (Wait until later to add the top.)

Click to enlarge.

Step 2: Assemble the Rotunda dome, which consists of three parts: (1) a top, (2) a bottom, and (3) an intermediate piece that connects the top and bottom.

Click to enlarge.

Step 3: Next assemble the horizontal and vertical cam shafts. These cam shafts translate the horizontal motion of the crank handle into a vertical motion that raises and lowers the Rotunda dome.

Click to enlarge.

Step 4: Glue the two sides of the cam to the cam spacer which connects the two cam components (see image in step 5). In a later step in the assembly sequence, the cam shaft will be threaded through the holes in the sides of the cam. Therefore the cam spacer should be offset so it does not block these holes.

Click to enlarge.

Step 5: Slide the horizontal cam shaft through the following:

1. the left wall of the Rotunda,
2. an interior washer,
3. the slots of the two cam components,
4. a second interior washer, and
5. the right wall of the Rotunda.

Step 6: Once all of the items (see image in step 5) have been fitted, glue them in place. Place the two outside washers (brick colored) on the cam shaft to cap it.

Click to enlarge.

Step 7: Assemble the crank handle and attach the right-hand side of the cam shaft.

Click to enlarge.

Step 8: Assemble the cam follower. Then attach it to the inside of the front wall near the top of the wall so that it rests on the cam. (As the cam rotates, the cam follower will move up and down to raise and lower the Rotunda dome.)

Click to enlarge.

Step 9: Attach the vertical cam shaft (previously assembled) to the cam follower. Add the top of the Rotunda to the assembly so that the vertical cam shaft extends through the hole in the center of the top.

Step 10: Slide the previously assembled Rotunda dome over the vertical cam shaft. Turn the crank to verify that the dome raises and lowers smoothly as the cam shaft rotates. (The cam shaft follower is spring loaded as a result of its attachment to the front wall, so some resistance is normal.)

Step 11: The final steps in assembly involve adding the Rotunda steps, vertical columns, and pediment to the front of the building.