🛰 Intergalactic Space Set – 3D Design and Math

In this project we designed 3D objects that had components maximized for surface area or volume. Our driving questions varied depending on the 3D shape we chose. We (my teammates Teva and Alicia) made this YouTube Video so that you can watch the presentation:

My driving question originally was “How can I design a satellite to maximize volume?” but I think that the following would have made more sense (and it’s the one I’ll use for this post):

How Can I Design A Satellite With Different Components That Are Maximized For Surface Area or Volume? 

I can use 3D design software like Tinkercad to design a model. I can then measure that model and use the measurements to calculate the Surface Area and Volume using various formulas. I can calculate ratio to determine whether the component has been successfully maximized (has more) for Surface Area or Volume.

Milestone 4 was designing our 3D models in Tinkercad. Designing these models links to the competency “Applying and innovating:  How can I contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches?” By learning to innovate and design things can help communities or the world by designing objects to make lives easier and maybe even save them!

 After we designed our models in Tinkercad for Milestone 4 (Teva designed a Space Station and Alicia designed a Space Shuttle), we started on Milestone 2 in which we wrote out the formulas we were going to use for our calculations. I found that the most difficult part of this Milestone was finding a formula for a trapezoid (this video helped me understand the formula). I think that this Milestone was a good representation of “Communicating and Representing: How can I explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions?” Because it required me to effectively communicate which formulas I was going to use for each component. Click the image below to see all of my formulas:

I then proceeded to Milestone 3, where I put my formulas to use. I found that the most challenging part of the calculations was the trapezoids on the solar panels. I had to learn how to calculate the trapezoid on my own. (It was not a skill taught in class.) This Milestone helped me understand the competency “Reasoning and Analyzing: How can I model mathematics in contextualized experiences?” I think that by spending some time learning how to do slightly more advanced math, I was able to extend my abilities on the Reasoning and Analyzing competency. I was very surprised to find myself actually having fun doing the calculations! You can view my calculations by clicking the image below:

Milestone 5 was our Keynote presentation. I put together all of our work into Keynote and used magic move to transition between slides. I think that I could have improved my presentation by remembering to look at the audience and maybe speak a bit more clearly. I also could have used the pointer tool in Keynote to highlight parts of the slide I was talking about. However I do think that I did a very professional job of creating our Keynote, and I am very proud of it! If you didn’t see our presentation at the start of this post, here it is again (watch it!):

I had fun getting to see what my classmates designed, and I learned a lot about 3D design and math in this project. I hope that I will be able to use these skills in the future to design projects of my own! Next up for Scimatics is something to do with comics and cells…