I'm presenting at ISTE 2020!

Received word this week that two of my proposals to present at ISTE 2020 have been accepted! I am thrilled to be able to share the good work that our teachers and students have accomplished at school. We'll have a small group travelling so after the break we'll be busy planning and organizing travel.

12 Days Of

The leadup to the holidays has meant lots of deadlines and work at school. One consistent project is 3D printing. Right now our primary STEM teacher is printing cookie cutters the students designed in either Tinkercad or Blox3D. They're turning out great and it's forced me to get our fourth Monoprice printer up and running.
It had developed a bad clog which meant I had to disassemble the hotend and clean it all out. While doing that the PTFE bowden tube that carries the filament slipped out of it's coupling. It's a non-standard part since it's a cheap printer so I had to 3D print a part that fastened to the housing -- I then looped a ziptie through it clamping down the bowden tube so it didn't slip out of it's coupling again. It's moved a bit since then but I just push it back in and hope the friction fitting holds it.
The demand on the 3D printers has also prompted me to complete the build on our Creality Ender 3 printer. We had gotten it with the Monoprice ones for larger prints (it has a bed size of 220 mm x 220mm x 250mm). I'm going to load it with ABS and use it for more durable/large prints. Unfortunately I've noticed a slight inconsistency of the bed level; it's a bit higher in the center. I'm not sure if it's the actual bed or the Buildtak surface that gets clamped on top.

UBC Teacher Education Conference

Charlotte and I have just returned from UBC where we did a presentation on Practical ADST tips for the STEAMy classroom. We aimed to show them lots of STEAM activities they could run in their classes, but to also give them the "real story" on successes and failures we've discovered in our own classes.

We had 30+ enthusiastic teacher candidates in our session and I really enjoyed our time. I think for me it's a great opportunity to help prepare the next generation of teachers and also keeps me on my toes in terms of content.

In for an inch

One of the fun things about our laser cutter is that it's a hobbyist machine; it's designed to be accessible instead of the Trotecs and Epiglogs out there that are meant for industrial shops. Unfortunately, this also means tempering expectations. We are creating some Christmas decorations for school staff and it's a constant reminder that just because the laser cutter can do it doesn't mean it should. Sometimes it's cheaper, faster and just plain easier to buy them wholesale!

Laser cutter swatches

Laser cutters can engrave or cut through a variety of material so it's important to keep a log of the settings for each. Often times the settings are the same and you'll only see a slight variation, and other times you'll see differences on the same piece of material. Plywood, for example, can offer slight variations depending on the amount of glue used. Corrugated cardboard is often not completely flat or has different-sized air holes inside.

I spent the better part of a day creating swatches for the different kinds of raw material we have in the Makerspace. Hopefully I can mount them to posterboard and leave it next to the laser cutter so other users can benefit.

The swatches have information and test patches of depth percentage and speed, the two settings that have the most impact on engraving. If I planned a bit better I could have included space for score and cut settings -- although this probably would only be beneficial to see if the laser cut through the material, which would mean the last setting is the only important one.

Laser cutting topographic maps

I've added another project to my current assortment of a DIY coffee table, Breakout boxes, and pot lights at home: laser cutting a 3D elevation map of Vancouver. You can often see this wooden maps at craft fairs and they take a fair amount of work: you have to extrapolate the elevation data from maps, create a 3D vector-based file, accurately scale it to the thickness and size of your material, then assemble it, typically gluing all the nested elevation layers one by one.

It's quite a bit of work and I've stopped and started numerous times. I am also definitely not a great geographer, so a lot of the GIS and elevation data is a bit confusing to me; I'm not even sure what the difference is between topographic, elevation, digital elevation, and contour maps! But I've somehow made it a point where I can start assembling my first prototype. Here is the 3D file I've created so far of Vancouver:

I had to exaggerate the hills a bit so they contrast more with the flat areas but I'm really happy with what I have so far. There's quite a few different ways to get this point, so here are some of the links I used so I don't forget:

• http://www.meshmixer.com/
• http://www.meshlab.net/
• https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview
• https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=8699194120463301363&appLang=en&os=Mac&autostart=true
• http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/
• https://data.vancouver.ca/datacatalogue/contour.htm
• https://opentopography.org/
• https://qgis.org/en/site/
• https://apps.gov.bc.ca/ext/mtec/public/products/mapsheet
• https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/geographic-data-services/topographic-data/elevation/digital-elevation-model

Doing a jig: followup

I picked up some of the 1/4" copper couplings from Home Depot and tried inserting them into the 3D printed pocket hole jigs. The hole is quite a snug fit, so I tried heating up the copper with a soldering iron (actually a woodburning iron but technically the same) and sliding it in. I completely melted the interior shaft of the first jig! I guess I held the iron to the copper too long and it got much too hot.

The subsequent ones worked fine, though I found it was sometimes easier to run the drill bit through and grind the spinning coupling into the plastic. Once it was in I heated it up a bit to try and get a press fitting. I also received the four 3/8" drill bits from Amazon, but unfortunately one was missing the set screw on the collar so it was pretty much useless to me. I printed off a return label and will post it back tonight.

I tried out the DIY jigs in class today and they worked well -- for a little bit. For the most part they held up but one jig got destroyed when the drill went in on a funny angle. Two or three more had the copper coupling fall out; I re-seated them with the soldering iron and they seemed to last the rest of the block.

Overall, I wouldn't do it again just to save money. The Kreg jig is much sturdier, perhaps because the coupling runs the entire length of the drilling shaft or maybe the plastic is a bit tougher. And since one of my new drill bits was missing it's collar due to the set screw I was also down one station. Much easier just to buy the package all together and you know it all works.

Doing a jig

I've been using the Kreg K4 jig to make pocket holes recently. I'm pretty new to using such a jig and it's worked out really well. It's easy enough for our woodworking students to use but still challenges them to consider hole placement, depth and final appearances when filling with dowels or putty. Unfortunately, the K4 is quite expensive at around $130 regular price. There are cheaper versions, but they typically require clamping and move around a lot.

Since we typically have 15 students all requiring the jig at the same time I tried shopping around for cheaper version. I turned to Thingiverse and found a few different jigs. I printed out this one and found some 1/4" copper couplings at Home Depot to insert. The couplings should help guide the drill bit and protect the plastic from damage, similar to how the Kreg jigs work. I'd like to attach a vertical support on either end to help with clamping and alignment.

For the drill bits, I ordered some 3/8" bits with stop collars from Amazon. The reviews are a bit mixed on the durability and quality of the step screws on the collars but for $11 each I'll give it a try. I'll have a total of 6 3D printed jigs, 4 extra drill bits, the Kreg K4 and a smaller R3 jig. My 3D printed versions and Amazon drill bits are basically DIY versions of the Kreg Jig Mini sold for around $27. Plastic filament works out to be about $1.50, drill bits and stop collars were $11, and the copper couplings were $1.15 each. So a total savings of about $14 each, or $56 in total. We'll see if they work!

A page-turner

Once I started working on the DIY Breakout boxes I couldn't stop! Every day I have thinking of new puzzles and locks that the Grade 4s (my target audience) would enjoy. After visiting many dollar stores I realized the following: hinges and hasps are readily available with prices from $0.50 to $3.00 each. However, locks are more difficult in their higher price and lower variety.

So off to eBay and Aliexpress I went. I ordered a variety of number padlocks ($1.25 each), UV flashlights and markers ($0.85 each), paper red/cyan 3D glasses for revealing hidden codes ($0.33 each). Word locks are a bit more elusive; I have definitely seen them for $4 or cheaper at Dollarama but of course inventory is alway hit or miss; unfortunately these days it's more miss.

An alternative I found was 3D printing. I was specifically interested in the idea of a cryptex, or a container that had a self-contained locking mechanism that used a word as it's key (ala Da Vinci Code). I used a couple of designs and printed off some prototypes and they seemed sturdy and variable enough for children to use and reset. This one and this one were the main inspirations. I adapted them to include letters, but since each dial could only show 10 possible digits at a time I Googled the most frequent letters and took sets of 20. I used Tinkercad to replace the numerical digits with alpha. I am quite happy with the results; the tolerances were forgiving enough to make spinning the dials easy and the whole thing prints easily in a few hours:

Breakout MVP

I have been fortunate to attend design thinking workshops hosted by Future Design School. A couple times we hosted them at school to help kickstart our electives programs and inspire our teachers think about their curriculum from a design cycle point of view. The other time was with Les McBeth in London for GoogleEI.

I had great experiences at all of their workshops, though I would have liked to drill down in more specific ways around my change management goals. One of the big takeaways from FDS is when designing something, or anything really, don’t let the physical or mental big picture get in the way. Get to a point where you can show some sort of prototype to others (or just yourself) so you can hold it and experience it to encourage feedback.

To this end I decided to create a DIY Breakout box. I’ll write a bit more about my BreakoutEDU journey in a future post, however I want to show off what I built today:

This is my MVP: my Minimal Viable Product, or the bare minimum I could build as a proof of concept. I used scrap 1x4 and salvaged nails. The hasp is too long, there is a nail protruding into the interior, some sides are splitting and it’s definitely crooked but it works! I can now use this to demonstrate how students can solve a puzzle, get a 3-digit answer to unlock the padlock, and reveal whatever is inside. Another puzzle? Access to a new tool? Another box? Sure!

GSuite training for office staff

I do a lot of teacher training for GSuite but not a lot of administrative staff training. I find even though the skills taught are similar, the application is quite different. Our office staff are experts in their field and can maximize business process management to many of their needs. It's a bit awkward for me to come in and recommend optimizations based on my experience in a classroom. It seems like one of those instances where someone wants to apply a business case study to an education environment, or vice versa -- some concepts just don't transfer easily.

Regardless, I ran a three-hour training session today for some our office staff. I opened by stating the above; that, full disclosure, I probably wasn't the best person to help them optimize their processes but I can show how the GSuite tools work. Hopefully they go off and leverage some new (some old) skills to make things more efficient.

I modified the Google Applied Skills GSuite Certification curriculum and came up with this slide deck. Feel free to make a copy and modify for your own needs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OdcPv1wExf-TjXPJ6r9k3EZ3CkPc_6E_8_V7idX8m00/edit?usp=sharing

Haida dice

The other day our math department head asked if woodworking could produce a set of Haida dice. These are small dice-like objects with one curved face used in games of chance. Landing on different faces scores different points; the size of each face dictates how many points the player receives.

Typically they are made of wood, perhaps a 1"x2" run against a round drum sander. However, since a class set was needed I suggested fabricating them on the 3D printers. We quickly mocked up a prototype in Tinkercad by simply using a stretched cube with a cylinder hole for the curved face. What made the production interesting was how much infill: a typical infill of 10%-25% would make it too light. We tried 50% and 100% and tested how well they landed and bounced. 50% was the winner!

We also discovered that in Tinkercad the cylinder shape has a small default "faces" setting. ie a cylinder is not perfectly smooth. Clicking the placed shape opens up its settings which includes a "sides" setting that lets you adjust the smoothness.

Upgrading iMacs to Catalina and Meraki MDM

I have been slowly updating our Makerspace iMacs to Catalina and enrolling them into Meraki. Lots of different reasons for this, but the most prominent is that major OS releases give me time to reflect on what worked well and didn't work out with the last OS. In this case, we shifted printing to student BYOD through Google Cloud Print so there was no need for students to use the iMacs anymore.

The Makerspace iMacs run in Guest Mode so it's easy to reset the machines and erase personal data with a reboot. I had big problems with using the macOS Recovery option (it only worked on 4 or 5 machines) so ended up downloading Catalina and installing it on two USB sticks and a MicroSD card using Install Disk Creator. One machine couldn't reformat the drive as APFS until I figured out Disk Utility was actually hiding the "device" -- going into the View menu allowed me to view devices and I was able to right-click (or Ctrl-click) the drive and format as APFS.

Once the machine was wiped and upgraded to Catalina I enrolled into Meraki. This involved:

1. System Preferences > Sharing. Rename the shared computer name using the convention "Makerspace iMac #"
2. System Preferences > Users. Turning on the Guest login and in Login Options setting it as the default login (so reboots will go directly into Guest).
3. Opening Safari and doing the mobile Meraki enrolment.

There was a bit of finagling behind the scenes with profiles. Using my admin iMac I created a profile that had a few settings Meraki cannot handle: the two colour printers, setting screensaver timeouts, turning on Content Caching. I used Apple Server for this, though only the Profile Manager component. Oddly, it opens in a web browser instead of the Server app. Once all profile settings are created I then downloaded the .mobileconfig file and uploaded to Meraki. I force pushed that profile and the Meraki macOS profile.

Note that Meraki suggests force downloading the Agent app -- I enabled that in the Meraki settings. It unlocks some additional power features, like Command Line and Remote Desktop. I used command line to turn on Remote Management so my Apple Remote Desktop can control the iMacs. I used this command:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -restart -agent -privs -all

There might be a problem with some VPP apps not downloading. It might just be their size, specifically iMovie and Keynote. One iMac is definitely downloading. I'll have to double-check the others in a few days.

Next step to push out a custom wallpaper using Apple Remote Desktop. Meraki might be able to handle this -- it works really well with iOS and DEP iPads. Much much much easier than Configurator.

My GoogleEI mentor

This month I'll be checking in with Julie, my GoogleEI mentor. It'll only be the second time I've chatted with her since we've both been busy with start of school things. I'm really excited to be working with her. When I was searching for a mentor in London I specifically only looked at mentors that had elementary school experience so I can get relevant feedback on my Digital Citizenship boardgame.

One of my favourite things from the Innovator academy was the clear timeline of the upcoming year. I was provided with a mentor/mentee book and a roadmap GDoc that will help Julie and me plan out our meetings. To be honest, I haven't had much time to think about my Data Mine boardgame but these timed meetings really help in forcing me to stick to a schedule. Otherwise nothing will get done!

Conference proposal accepted!

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend I received word that my proposal for the teacher candidate conference was accepted! I'm excited that my STEM colleague and I get a chance to show teacher candidates how things work (or don't work) in a real classroom setting. We have a couple of months now to gather materials and get some talking points down. I would like to focus on small, easy STEM projects they can do in their classrooms or makerspaces with a healthy dose of practicality. Sometimes real world situations don't mimic textbooks or university classes.

Another focus would the integration of the ADST curriculum into our classes. It can be daunting for a teacher to consider yet another curriculum piece on top of what they're already doing, but I hope to show that the ADST is quite a simple add-on to already full teaching days.

Easy step-stools from 1x4s and 2x4s

Measurements for step-stools:

1x4x96:
15.5" x 3 (steps)
10.5" x 2 (side-tops)
7" x 2 (side-bottoms)
14" x1 (back)

2x4x96:
16" x 3 (steps)
7" x 2 (side-tops)
10.5" x 2 (side-bottoms)
13" x 1 (back)

Notes:

• cut the back piece last, after confirming everything else fits flush (you may need to adjust the length of the back piece)
• our 96" planks were actually 96.5" which meant we had an inch and a bit leftover, depending on the accuracy of the cuts
• thinner 1x4 planks obviously split more easily than thicker 2x4 planks so larger pilot holes should be made
• angled cuts introduce errors on pocket holes; ensure edges are flat before placing in jig
• dowels are difficult to flush cut, try wood filler

Laser cutter materials

Sent off a few quotes today to plastics suppliers for some acrylic sheets:

Hello, we are running a small laser cutter in our school and are looking for some acrylic/plastic that is safe to cut. We’d like a variety of colours, including transparent. It’s mostly for quick fun projects for kids so the materials does not need to be high quality.

Maximum sheet size is 12” x 20” but smaller is fine like 12” x 12”. Thickness 1/8” and ¼”.

Quantity of at least 10 sheets in 1/8” and ¼”, in maybe 5 different colours each? So a total of 100 sheets including shipping to the address below.

We've had really good success with the demo sheet that came with the Dremel LC40. Biggest issue was venting the smell, but it wasn't too bad for small jobs.
The cheapest sheets I've found so far are from Shop3D.ca for 1/8" at $8.75 per sheet. It's not bad for retail but wholesale cost is half that, but you'd have to cut it down yourself.
We had a big issue with using large 1/8" plywood sheets from Windsor Plywood: it was just too warped and bowed to lie flat on the bed. I tried every trick to flatten it out, including spritzing water and applying pressure but no luck. It would save alot of time just getting pre-cut flat sheets.
Dremel does sell its own pre-cut sheets but at ludicrous cost, around $12 USD a sheet!

Presentation proposals

Last week I submitted some proposals for two conferences: ISTE and a university teacher-training program. Doing more formal presentations is a part of my growth plan for this year. I'm aiming to present at least once in a local, national and international conference.
I enjoyed the process but it was very difficult narrowing down a topic that I felt I had enough expertise in. I am quite picky when I attend conferences and I spend quite a bit time planning my schedule. I want to make sure I honour the attendees that may choose mine.

For ISTE:

• Essential workflows for elementary school photo and video production [Proposal submission: Poster]
• Gotcha! Using the power of headlines to drive student responsibility [Proposal submission: Snapshot]
• Photoshopping fakes for the frugal photographer [Proposal submission: Creation lab]

Teacher candidate:

• Don't do what we did: Practical ADST tips for the STEAMy classroom

Photoclub in the rain

Mr. Maz is helping out with Photoclub this year and brings some great ideas in. Photographers looked at rain and conceptualized it in striking ways:

Woodworking for kids

Four classes into a woodworking course for Grade 6 and 7 and I'm well pleased with the progress. The students have really gotten into it and have enjoyed using power tools and sawing. For most, this is their first time using any hand tools for woodworking.

We're making simple projects since we only have five 80-minute sessions. I decided to challenge the students into making a simple stool from one plank of 2x4. I thought this would be a nice introduction to woodworking since it only uses butt joints and 90-degree cuts. Pocket screws using a Kreg jig will add a bit more elegance.

The projects fits in really nicely with the ADST objectives for woodworking:

woodworking techniques

for example, cutting materials according to plan, layout, sanding methods, abrasive applications 

and basic joinery

for example, butt joints (with and without dowel), rabbit joints, gluing, nails and screws 

using hand tools

for example, cordless and corded drills, rotary tool, hammer, screwdriver, backsaw, coping saw, nail set, square, clamp and vise