Add a Face to Mt. Rushmore

thingiverse

This project is based on a writing assignment one of our teachers used to give the students. They had to choose a figure from American history to add to Mt. Rushmore, and write about why their choice deserved the honor. The idea here is to add a 3D printing component to the assignment by having the students actually sculpt the face of their figure and add it to a model of Mt. Rushmore. This will also be the student's first experience with sculpting on the computer using Sculptris ** Sculpt GL is a web based sculpting app that will work for this project: https://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/ The Mt. Rushmore model is from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1318107, I added a blank section of mountain for an additional face. I created an example using a sculpt of Albert Einstein's face as a test run. This is my first Sculptris sculpt, so it's not exactly museum quality, but hopefully you can recognize it. Standards NGSS Overview and Background This project is based on a writing assignment on of our teachers used to give the students. They had to choose a figure from American history to add to Mt. Rushmore, and write about why their choice deserved the honor. The idea here is to add a 3D printing component to the assignment by having the students actually sculpt the face of their figure and add it to a model of Mt. Rushmore. This will also be the student's first experience with sculpting on the computer using Sculptris The Mt. Rushmore model is from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1318107, I added a blank section of mountain for an additional face. Lesson Plan and Activity Students will chose a figure from American history to add to Mt. Rushmore. Students will write a speech that could be given when the new face is unveiled and dedicated. The speech should explain why this person is worthy of the honor and describe their accomplishments. Students will use Sculptris to sculpt the face of their person **Update: SculptGL is a web based sculpting app that will work for this project and will output STL files, which makes it easier to combine with Rushmore model in Tinkercadhttps://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/ If this is their first experience with Sculptris demonstrate how to use the Draw and Crease brushes It may be helpful for the students to watch a tutorial about using Sculptris Show the students how to change the size and strength of the brush Leave the Symmetry on Students only need to sculpt the front and sides of the face since it will be attached to the mountain When the sculpting is done export the face as an OBJ file Convert the OBJ file into an STL file. This can be done in MeshMixer, or through an online file converter Start Tinkercad. Import the blank Mt. Rushmore file. Import the sculpture of the face. Resize and rotate the face into the right size and orientation Move the face into position. Make sure it is firmly connected to the mountain. Print your model. Project: Add a Face to Mount Rushmore Objective Students will chose someone from American history to add to Mt. Rushmore. Audience This project was intended for an 8th grade class. By 8th grade the students had learned about American history up through the 20th century. Preparation Students should have learned enough about American history to be able to choose someone deserving of the honor of being on Mount Rushmore next to Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln. This would be a good first activity with Sculptris. Students should have some experience with Tinkercad. Steps Students will chose a figure from American history to add to Mt. Rushmore. Students will write a speech that could be given when the new face is unveiled and dedicated. The speech should explain why this person is worthy of the honor and describe their accomplishments. Students will use Sculptris to sculpt the face of their person If this is their first experience with Sculptris demonstrate how to use the Draw and Crease brushes It may be helpful for the students to watch a tutorial about using Sculptris Show the students how to change the size and strength of the brush Leave the Symmetry on Students only need to sculpt the front and sides of the face since it will be attached to the mountain When the sculpting is done export the face as an OBJ file Convert the OBJ file into an STL file. This can be done in MeshMixer, or through an online file converter Start Tinkercad. Import the blank Mt. Rushmore file. Import the sculpture of the face. Resize and rotate the face into the right size and orientation Move the face into position. Make sure it is firmly connected to the mountain. Print your model. Results This project was completed with an 8th grade class. This was their first experience with Sculptris and it took them two periods (about 90 minutes) to complete their sculptures, with varying degrees of success. The weakest part of their sculpting was the eyes, which many of them made by drawing like you would for a 2D picture, instead of modeling eye sockets. Importing the faces into TInkercad was a nuisance. Sculptris outputs files in .OBJ so they had to be converted into .STL format. The files were too big for online converters, so I ended up transforming them with Meshmixer. It would be better to complete the project using just one program. Despite some glitches all the students were able to complete a 3D model, they are available here.