An open lecture held on Aizu Geek Dojo on Aug. 24th

On August 24th (Sat), an open lecture using 3D printers and laser cutters was held at Aizu Geek Dojo.

This lecture was the first event that the student assistants (SAs) of the University of Aizu made a plan, prepared the materials, and gave the instruction. 5 local elementary school students with their parents attended the event.

https://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/sgu/info/event/824aizu_geek_dojo_sa.html

Theme: Let's make a "light-up treasure box"!

In this lecture, students made their own treasure boxes.
SAs gathered their designs of the boxes from the participants and engraved them with a laser cutter on the boxes in advance.

△A light-up treasure box (They can put a treasure in the center of the box.)

In the morning of lecture, SAs introduced Aizu Geed Dojo to the participants and demonstrated how to use 3D printers and laser cutters. And then, the children worked to connect the LEDs to the base of the treasure boxes made with the 3D printers. Everyone listened carefully to SAs explanation and worked hard.

　　

After lunch, they started programming to light up LEDs. It was the first time for the children to write codes. It was difficult for them, but they tried their best to solve the problems with the support of SAs and their parents.

They accomplished their own "boxes".

After the lecture, we got some comments from the participants.
A boy said, "It was interesting!" "I want to put my treasure in it."
Another children said, "I want to try again!"
Some parents said, "Some parts of the work were hard for children, but we are glad that they tried to thought out a way to solve them and made an effort."

Comments from SAs.

It is a valuable experience that we planned everything for the lecture from what products to make, what functions to add, what kind of work to experience for elementary school students.

△Sketch for planning

We made a concept about "light-up treasure box" firstly and made trial products over and over.
It was hard to remodel product few times. It was also difficult to adjust the sculpture depth while watching how the LED shines.

△The box was remodeled few times.

We were glad that not only children but also parents enjoyed our lecture.
If we have more opportunities, we would like to improve the hardware such as attaching buttons and switches to the treasure box, and improve the lecture itself.