I am a 6th grader and president and founder of a 3d designing club in my middle school. I have pretty much taught everyone in my club everything I know in the past year and need something to teach them next year. Does anybody have any advice?
Right now I have taught them multiple things on tinkercad, and they want to continue next year. But I have taught them everything I could.
Try to learn and teach more advanced softwares like Fusion 360 or Blender(meant for sculpting). Also have them do projects that allow for them to demonstrate their learning.
I recommend watching Kevin Kennedy on Youtube for Fusion 360
Teach subjects other than the very specific thing of modelling.
Ok thank you for the advice!
Next year I might teach them about the Cyberbrick, and maybe even buy a few kits for them to assemble.
Do you know how I can get fusion, because its telling me that I have to pay 680$ per year?
Here’s the link to the free version. It has some limitations but I know a lot of people use it and say it’s all they need.
thank so much! this is really going to help.
The free version is 99%!
Biggest reasons to get the licensed version is if you’re making money with it, or you reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly need that one specific weird feature the licensed version has… which you probably don’t need.
Maybe a larger project is in order. Like you can pose a problem that they have to design a product to address, by the end of the year. The problem could be anything. You could compare and contrast how different people approached the problem, and how they utilized what you taught them to approach the problem.
There’s a design firm I remember from years past. They had their little portfolio of designs and each one started with a problem to be solved. Haha, the one I always remember was “A better way to stick your fingers in a wall socket” And the product was pretty much an adapter so you can stick your fingers in a wall socket. I don’t advise you to mimic that one, ha.
I liked that idea though, as it relates to exploring the concepts of design, especially as you’re learning. It doesn’t matter what the problem to be solved is. It doesn’t have to be revolutionary. It just needs to get you thinking.
“LIke you can pose a problem that they design a product”
I was thinking about that, but do you know what problem I should give them?
One problem I solved recently was bracing a shaky table. Just find a table at the school that has more wobble than it should and challenge them to stabilize it. One rule can be that they can use the existing hardware that’s holding the table together but they can’t drill, cut or damage the original table. I added braces on all 4 corners and two extra legs in the middle.
WOW, great idea, thank you sooo much!
Dont steal other peoples work and take the credit like its your own.
This sounds super fun. I wish my teachers had done stuff like this when I was a kid.
I don’t have any additional advice for you aside from what’s been offered in this thread, but I just wanted to commend you for reaching out on these forms, and taking the initiative to create this club and teach kids at your age! you’ve got a bright future ahead of you! Keep up the enthusiasm and good work 
I would never! I was going to give him credit.
Thank you so much! And I am glad you are reading the forums I post!
Lots of great suggestions here. I’ll add one other. What I notice when new folks start modeling is that they just make the model without any thought to the manufacturing process. In our case, this is typically an FDM printer. So you need to be mindful of ramp angles, overhangs, bridge distances and tolerances between parts etc. I once saw someone create a very nice model but to print it required more supports than the model itself. With a few adjustments they were able to print without any supports at all.
Thank you I’ll try something like this!
