Project: Making Fossils with Sculptris

thingiverse

This project, found in MakerBot in The Classroom (http://www.makerbot.com/education), focuses on using Sculptris. You can download the sculptris_project.pdf from Thing Files. You can download Sculptris from http://pixologic.com/sculptris/. In this project, you and your students will learn how to use a free program called Sculptris. Sculptris is a digital sculpting tool that uses brush tools to manipulate a digital ball of clay, useful for creating organic shapes. The following section outlines how to incorporate Sculptris into a geological timescale and fossil unit. We’ll learn how to design several complex shapes reminiscent of fossils. We’ll also explore how to setup and print models that have curved surfaces. Even if you don’t have a fossil unit in your class, Sculptris is a good program for any other project that requires organic shapes. Overview and Background Students will study the timeline of life’s evolution and create creatures that lived in the eras that make up the timeline. Together in groups, students will research an assigned period and create a creature that lived then. Once the creature is made, students will select which part they want to model as a fossil and print. To conclude the project, students can share their fossils, date them, and explain what the animal might have looked like and why. Lesson Plan and Activity The entire lesson is laid out with pictures in the .PDF downloadable in the Thing Files. Step 1: Introduction Lesson Students will study geological timescale. Talk about the geological timeline. What makes it up? What is it used for? Break the timeline out into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Have student teams each research a period from the paleozoic, mesozoic, or cenozoic era. Have the teams share their discoveries with the rest of the class. Introduce what fossils are and how they form. Have student group’s create a creature that could live in the research periods. Step 2: Design Shell Fossil See video below and download sculptris_project.pdf from the Thing Files Open Sculptris Flatten Sphere into a disk Elongate one side of your object Draw a helix indent Draw detail lines around the helix Finishing touches Exporting and printing the fossil Step 3: Design Tooth Fossil See video below and download sculptris_project.pdf from the Thing Files Form the basic starting shape Flatten along the symmetry line Draw the side surfaces of the teeth Crease the top of the teeth Add finishing touches Exporting and printing Step 2: Design Shell Fossil Step 3: Design Tooth Fossil Extension Activity Create a plaster fossil from molds Make a disk of clay on each plate, and have the students press their fossils into the clay. Apply vaseline into the fossil cavity. Pour Plaster of Paris into the cavity and leave overnight. The next day, have the students remove their plaster fossils from the clay and share the animals they’ve made. Review or finish covering the seven ways that fossilization occurs in nature. Have the students swap their fossils with classmates. Prompt them to sketch the fossils and try to figure out what kind of animal it was and why it looks the way it does. Paleontologist Dig - Bury and Unearth fossils Have your students design a creature from the beginning of the Paleolithic Era and evolve it through the Mesozoic Era. Each student can sculpt and print a series of small fossils that represent what the animal might have been like in each era. After printing, each student can assemble a soil timeline in a disposable casserole tray, by burying the fossils in sand in the order that reflects the Precambrian ages (oldest is deepest, and so on). Have the students swap trays and learn how to properly uncover and date fossils in the same way paleontologists do. The students should date the fossils based on where they were found and what kind of creature they likely represent. Duration of Lesson 3-4 class sessions, additional 1 - 2 if you want to include the extension activity - Each student designs and prints 1 fossil - Groups of 4 Preparation To prepare for this lesson you will need the following supplies: Sculptris Downloaded or SculptGL on browsers Chromebook or Computer per student (print time 1 hour per fossil) Digital Sculpting Fossils handouts Fossils Extension Activity Materials: Pourable plaster Vaseline Sand Clay Paper plates Casserole dish Rock cleaning tools Rubric and Assessment Knowledge Checks How is digital sculpting different from other modeling tools? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sculptris? How do you use Symmetry? How do you navigate in Sculptris? What are good tricks for successfully printing organic shapes? How do you use supports and rafts in MakerBot Desktop? Why do you need to scale Sculptris objects in MakerBot Desktop? References http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001822.html http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/clock_of_eras.html http://bie.org/object/document/digging_for_dinos Project: Making Fossils Objectives Students should walk away with knowledge of: Geological timescale (eon > era > period > epoch) Biological adaptation How fossils are made Paleontologists’ work Audiences This project can easily scale up or down to adapt to student numbers, grade level, time, subject matter, and resources available. Best for 3rd through 6th graders. Subjects Science, Biology Skills Learned (Standards) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.9: Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.7: Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table). Handouts & Assets sculptris_project.pdf