Teaching Sample
Introduction to 3D Design
Course Overview
In this course students learned 3D design as a way to conceptualize and iterate an idea with intent and purpose. The course consisted of three projects, each exercising a different critical design muscle to create a three dimensional product or artifact. The scale and material of each project varied with many opportunities for personal agency. Students embraced prolific production (Project 1), the power of the human hand as tool (Project 2), and design as an act of engagement (Project 3). We created objects with consideration of their impact on our world and practiced the iterative act of making in multiple media.
Project One: 100 Models
Students drew one word from a jar and were challenged to create 100 different prototypes representing the word. The students needed to prototype quickly, iterate multiple ideas and sustain a high level of craft as they learned idea generation and the beauty of failing quickly, to learn fast.
Project Two: A Utensil With History
This project invited students to take an idea from conception to creation while celebrating diversity within the classroom. Students created a prototype, model, rendering and fabrication of a kitchen utensil that embodied a personal, family tradition. The narrative was critical to this project and was displayed in the form and function of the utensil. Students had the freedom to define their family unit however they felt was accurate. Students chose their narrative and carved their utensils in wood. They used Rhino to render the model and had the option for 3D printing. In the final presentation, students were given an opportunity to talk about a piece of themselves with pride as they shared their family traditions, accompanying foods, and crafted utensils.
Final Project: Tools for Sitting
The final project involved partnering with the City of Davis Parks Department and Tucker McPhaul, a Landscape Architecture student and leader of a city park redesign. As a part of the overall park renovation, students from the course designed “tools for sitting”.
Approach
Students were challenged to rethink the historic conception of the word “chair”. They researched to understand the needs of the community members who used the park and they did a photo analysis to understand the types of sitting that would best fit the park. They defined one challenge they hoped to solve based on their research.
Deliverables
Equipped with their research, students designed and laser cut scale models, created drawings and renderings in Rhino, and built final presentations in Photoshop to present and submit to the neighborhood community activist group and the City of Davis employees.
