Category: design examples

Origami furniture patterns for kids

Origami is trending (for example this robot), and it’s a great way to introduce engineering to kids. We’ve already reported on kid-friendly DIY origami greeting cards. Our upcoming book, Bicycles, Airships and Things that Go, features an origami kayak inspired by Oru.

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Now there’s DIY cardboard kid furniture from Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stäubli’s FoldSchool (via Inhabitat). The website offers downloadable patterns allowing you and your kids to create a stool, rocker, or chair. Let us know how you get on!

Kids and 3D printing roundup

A few items across the desk lately:

Printeer, a 3D printer for kids

Currently a kickstarter campaign is underway for the Printeer, a 3D printer with name, looks, and ipad app to appeal to kids. The company sees schools as their primary market and have already worked with California elementary schools.

printeer

 

Google launches Made with Code to make STEM more attractive to girls

Made with Code is aimed at 13+ girls and gives them an easy way to code/create a 3D bracelet that Made with Code then prints and sends them (for free). Girls (or boys, one would think) use Blockly programming language to set the width, diameter, color, and message of the bracelet.

madewithcodebracelet

15 year old to start business recycling 3D print filament

Also tied to a potential kickstarter campaign, teenager Grayson Galisky wants to start a business recycling the plastic resin used in 3D printers (via 3Dprint). Research shows that waste plastic is a good source material for 3D print filament (the “ink” of the 3D printer) because it takes less energy than fully recycling the plastic into new products.

Common sense suggests that the “kid wonder” stories we’ve read about youngsters developing apps or online businesses is set to be repeated with kids’ businesses around 3D printing.

First Scottish library gets 3D printer to engage children

Dundee library central library is using their 3D printer to engage children and special needs audiences. The library is currently printing out characters from Carla Diana’s book Leo the Maker Prince, which are used in storytelling sessions.

Dundee library
From left: Susan Gerrard, co-facilitator James Keegans, Donna Sorie, Margaret McKay, group facilitator Nicky Welch and Grahame Lapham with the book and characters created using the 3D printer at Central Library. Photo DC Thomson from The Courier

This library story supports the case we made in previous blog post “5 ways to get little hands on STEM kit without buying it.”

What are your experiences of kids and 3D printing? Let us know in the comments. We have a 3D printing title in the works!

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Summer Kids’ Challenge on Design & Sustainability

What have you got planned for summer? Why not try out our 4-week, 4-project challenge with the kids in your life?

summer challenge
week three’s project covers re-use and closing the loop. Multi-generational, shared dress from Kate Fletcher’s Local Wisdom project

The projects help introduce the design and technology of sustainability (or “resilience,” if you prefer) to kids. We pictured 4 to 12 year olds doing these projects, led by an adult, but the projects could also suit teenagers. Each project challenges you to observe, question, and make design proposals for sustainability. Download it now (about 4MB PDF)

summer challenge
week four’s project looks at cooling the city: Chicago city hall’s green roof and New York’s “nopark”

The projects cover waste and reuse, green spaces (urban cooling), energy use, and nature’s design. There’s an element of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) which can be played up or down depending on your interests, along with the “A” for art and design!

P.S. we’ve gotten social. We have a facebook page and some pinterest boards

Do these images improve energy literacy?

The “Public Energy Art Kit” contains 14 posters that try to raise awareness of climate change, energy inequality and fossil fuel dependency. See all the posters here.

This one’s called “Energy Slaves” by Hugh D’Andrade.

energy slaves by Hugh D'Andrade


The poster examines how much energy we generate with our bodies compared to how much energy we consume daily. A grown man, working continuously, produces about 75 to 100 watts of power. Whereas, “In one day, the average American burns up the energetic equivalent of 100 men working 24/7 to enable the cozy lifestyle offered by our modern civilization.” Our energy-powered “labor saving” devices are the equivalent of  an army of energy slaves.

Another poster, by Jacob Arden McClure, addresses “energy sprawl” and how much physical space our energy system takes up. “When done right, renewable energy can help reduce energy sprawl.”

energy sprawl poster by Jacob Arden McClure


Take a look at all the posters and see if there are a few you can use.