Hello there! Welcome back to my blog! I have been working hard on a recent project and I am excited to share it with you…there was a lot of math involved so please stay with me. The end product is super cool. We used a website called TinkerCad to 3D model an object.

Driving Question: How can I design a bedside table for maximum volume?

Answer: I created a bedside table for maximum volume by calculating what the surface area to volume ratio was

The Milestone that really kicked off this project was the first one that we did. In Milestone 1, we had to pick an object that we wanted to recreate as a 3D object. We then had to decide whether it was intended for maximum volume or maximum surface area. If you were working with partners (like I was), we had to create a set of 3D objects that went together. Me and my 2 other partners decided to do the Ultimate Bedroom Setup. I picked to do a bedside table (for maximum volume), Makenna picked a bookshelves (for maximum volume), and Brooke picked a bed (for maximum surface area, but it ended up having more volume).

The next Milestone that put this project into motion was Milestone 3. Here, we did all the calculations and filled in all the formulas that we had created in Milestone 2. This was probably the hardest part of the whole project because we had to do a lot of math.

Here’s what my calculations looked like for the bedside table:

As you can see, there was a lot of calculations and math involved…I would like to take a minute here to personally think my calculator for being there for me throughout all of these hard equations.

Anyhow, Milestones 4 was having your object 3D printed, however there were a lot people that need to be printed, not everybody’s got printed. I think only about three or four peoples ended up getting printed. Mine was not one of them.

Milestone 5 was where we presented the final product to the whole class. I think we did very well on this as we practiced a lot. We forgot to record ourselves presenting to the class, so here is a re-creation of what we did.

Curricular Competencies:

Contribute to self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches

I did very well on this competency. Me and my friends worked together on this project. Even though we are friends and we could have talked and been unproductive the whole time, we came together and kept each other on task. We also bounced ideas off one another and gave kind, helpful, and specific feedback to improve our final product.

Model mathematics and contextualized experiences

My final project was created using the website TinkerCad. While designing it, I always had maximizing the volume in mind. My bedside table included 10 different shapes (rectangular prisms and cylinders). My partners and I all created matching pieces of furniture that were a set.

Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions

As you can see from Milestone 3, we calculated the volume and surface area. We also compared the surface area to volume in a ratio in our keynote presentation which is linked above as well. All of our calculations were well explained and written in our final presentation.

Wooow! That was a long post and a lot to talk about! I’m sure I missed some small detail somewhere because there was so much to talk about…so feel free to let me know if I did! I really enjoyed this project because I got to work with my friends to make something I’m super proud of. Also it’s kind of fun looking back to the beginning of this project because I can see how much I’ve learned! From learning new math equitations, to using TinkerCad, to learning how to better present! Thanks again for sticking with me till the end of this post, I hope you enjoyed!!

Best wishes,

-Dana

P.S. I almost forgot!! Here’s what our final products looked like:

Mine:

Makenna’s (which got 3D printed):

Brooke’s:

P.P.S. Thank you so much to Makenna and Brooke! You guys are the best and I could not have done this project without you!