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K-5 Maker Program: teaching kids to design for real people

A 3D-design program across several Norwalk elementary schools. Students learn Tinkercad through scaffolded lessons, get graded against a rubric written in their own voice, and, in Grade 5, design something that helps a specific group of people.

Audience
Grades K-5 and their teachers
Span
Oct 2023 – Mar 2025, plus a fall 2026 unit
Output
~170 designs, 3 video tutorials, rubric, unit plan
Tools
Tinkercad, 3D printers, Google Workspace
A Tinkercad 'Be a Star' coin
A Tinkercad texture tile covered in cones
Two of the tutorial designs: a "Be a Star" coin from the Kindness Coin tutorial, and a Texture Tile. Each has a video walkthrough.

The problem

3D printing arrives in a school as a cool machine and no curriculum. Teachers need a sequence that works for a class of 25 mixed-experience kids, and kids need to learn what will and won't print before the design gets personal.

What I built

  • Scaffolded lessons that move from guided shapes (the snowflake series) to open-ended design
  • Three video tutorials (Kindness Coin, Texture Tile, Desk Sign) so a teacher can run the lesson without me in the room
  • A student rubric with 3 criteria at 3 levels, written as "I" statements kids can self-assess against
  • About 170 unique designs over 18 months across several schools, roughly 110 of them clearly student work
  • Print logistics for each school: a submission form, batch printing between sessions, and a per-class print-status tracker

Design for Good: the Grade 5 unit

The newest piece is a draft scope and sequence for an eight-session Grade 5 unit that launches in fall 2026. I wrote the draft and co-designed the unit with the school's technology teacher. Students design and print something that makes daily life easier for a specific group, then test it with real people at a showcase.

From the scope and sequence
"A practice print in Phase 2 lets students see their own design succeed or fail before the work becomes personal. When they reach the capstone, they already know a 0.5 mm wall will snap and a floating part prints as spaghetti."
  • Five phases: Learn the Moves, Will It Print?, Design for Good, Build & Print, Test & Share
  • Three user groups to design for: children with autism, people with visual impairments, and older adults
  • A "print gate": every capstone passes printability checks before it is sliced
  • The calendar does the planning: sessions fall 7–11 days apart, so the week between is the print window and printing never uses class time
  • Shared roles: the technology teacher and I share user research and interviews, Tinkercad instruction, printability rules and printing across the unit

What this shows

  • Curriculum design with a rationale for the order, not only a list of activities
  • Writing rubrics students can actually use on themselves
  • Turning a one-off skill into video tutorials a teacher can run without the author
  • Project planning against a real school calendar, including early-dismissal days