Creating Confidence with Designing our first Cut Files using Cuttle.xyz

In the two previous blog post I introduced three project possibilities that focused on our Night Sky residency at Newport City Elementary Skills and some stellar books and literature connections.

 For each of these projects, students will be using either the laser cutter or Cricut cutter available in their school.  In this post we'll focus on the skillbuilding activity we used  to introduce both students and teachers to a workflow that students could use with the school's  brand new Glowforge laser cutter. 

This workflow will also work when students are designing for their Cricut Cutter. Although both these tools do offer a subscription based design tool, I recommend that students learn to design files using non-proprietary software for designing vector files needed when using a laser or cutting maker tools - like Cuttle.xyz.  It's a great choice for schools for several reasons.

• It's browser based - so it even works on Chromebooks.
• Cuttle.xyz has signed data privacy agreements with several schools
• It's accessible for middle grade students
• They have affordable K-12 pricing
• You can try before you buy with 3 free projects.

One Day 1, we lead each students to creating a hanging constellation disc of the Big Dipper cut from cardstock. We carefully went over safety protocols for using the laser cutter and explained that prototyping often starts with paper and cardboard before moving to wood, acrylic and other materials for the final version. 

This  tutorial video features the steps we used to provide sixth grade students the foundational skills they needed to design laser cut files for all three project choices available for this residency. 

The next step was to get the downloaded SVG files from the students' Chromebooks to the laser cutter. My favorite workflow for this is to create a Google Form using the ADD File question.  The link to this Google Form is made available to the students via their Google Classroom or other LMS  Students quickly learned to submit and resubmit new iteration of SVG files to the laser cutter with helpful comments. 

In this residency,  both the teacher and I used our laptopss to display the SPREADSHEET associated with the Google Form used to submit their SVG files.  One of us circulated around the room assisting students with designing their vector files while the other supervised students cutting their files at the laser cutter.  

Students quickly learned the following steps and were teaching each other the sequence of 

1. Submit SVG file to laser cutter using the Google Form (above).

2. Download their SVG file from the spreadsheet (Google form response) to computer controlling the laser cutter

3. Upload the SVG file to the Glowforge app. 

4. Order the cut layers so the inside cuts before the outside.

5. Change the setting to match the material in the laser cutter.

6. Use AutoFocus to measure depth of the material.

7. Press Print and check the estimated time to make sure it feels reasonable.

8. Make sure you have a fire buddy with spray bottle on standby, then press TEAL GO button on laser cutter.

9. Always supervise you cut. Never walk away from the laser cutter.

10. Wait for the laser cutter to cool down . Open Lid and remove your cut.

By the 2nd or 3rd iteration students felt confident with the sequence and  were independently switching materials between cardstock, cardboard, and draftboard as they revised their designs. 

It was amazing to watch the projects come to life as students safely used real world tools and developed the growth mindset necessary to iterate their way from prototype to a successful project. 

Stay tuned for three more posts that showcased the steps featuring each of the 3 project choices during this integrated  STEAM based MAKER residency.

Project options (paper circuit journal cover,  interactive constellation poster,  projection device) 

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And if  you'd like to learn how to  design your own integrated STEAM infused project using creativity, circuits, & stories this summer, join me and other creative educators for a fun filled week of hands on learning at the Project Design Lab June 23 - 27 in Burlington Vermont.  (includes lodging and graduate credit)  

Halloween Inspired Making Part 1

 

As we near the end of October, the world around us is filled with Halloween related themes in school, in stores, in communities and even the home.   So why not leverage this time of year for building some creative confidence and foundational skills in creating and making.  

I didn't realize where this project would lead -  but I'm pretty happy with where it landed.  By the end of the project I got  to to shake the rust off so many foundational maker skills, I feel a renewed sense of confidence in taking on something new.   

Let's start with where we ended up and then take a look on the process and skills learned along the way. 

Our Halloween Greeter sat next to the candy dish all night welcoming our our trick or treaters.  The biggest challenge was preventing it from blowing off the picnic table next to BELLA (our bus)  on this windy night. 

During the pandemic pause, we dismantled the makerspace in the bus while it was parked for over a year.   When I moved back in on October 15, the only maker supplies left were a drawer full of basic desk supplies (scissors, tape, pens, markers, etc).  This was a good opportunity for a new beginning informed by several years of creating and making in a variety of environments.   

So the week before Halloween launched a new inquiry  -- "Where do we begin" in setting up a new mobile maker space.

We began with a trip to Joann's Craft and Fabric to pick up a Cricut Maker 3 and some related supplies.  T

So I spent a little bit of change at Joann's but 
it made it feel like the beginning of a maker space again

The place known as the dog house on the bus 
became our "digital fabrication" space. 

Although th Cricut Maker  does have an option to to purchase a subscription to design images and fonts,  this does not meet my "WHY" for having a  Vinyl/Craft cutter  in my MakerSpace.  My goal is for learners (myself included) to become comfortable with using design tools to create using a variety of fabrication tools. 

That requires developing fluency with designing your own vector graphics.  For this I use   Gravit Design. It's powerful and freely accessible to learners - even those on a chromebook.  

I also don't believe you have to start from a blank page -  starting with 'clip art' or 'pre designed elements" is a often a launching point to a great design.  For inspiration I use The Noun Project.  I love it so much, I've chosen to purchase a subscription - but it can be used without a subscription as long as you provide attribution. 

After selecting and downloading some graphics in SVG format from the The Noun Project, I imported them into Gravit  to manipulate them into a design that might work for my Halloween Project.  I found myself having to use several features of Gravit to create the design I had in mind including "split path", "simplify path", create compound shapes, and manipulating anchor points along a path. 

I'm not that well versed with designing with vector software, so this was a welcomed challenge. 

After exporting my newly created design from Gravit, I was able to import it into Cricut Design and cut out the parts out of some orange vinyl and green cardstock that I had also picked up from Joann's Craft and Fabric. 

I was feeling pretty pleased with Part 1 of my project.  I had something I was proud of and was motivated to level it up.    Check out Part 2 of our project - which involved a little toy hacking, some circuits, some microbits with code and even a bit of soldering.