By Amy Eubank and Caitlin Thompson
Journey Middle School
The Actua Maker Mobile and University of Victoria’s Science Venture visited our Grade 7 class at Journey Middle School on Jan. 13.
In celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, the Maker Mobile is travelling across the country with the latest technology to teach small people about something big. Our class was lucky enough to have them stop by for an afternoon before they started on their tour.
There were two groups in our class – Actua Maker Mobile (a.k.a Lauren and Kevin) and Science Venture (a.k.a Mira, Andrew, and Michelle). Everyone got to use a MacBook laptop computer and a program called, 123-D Design.
Within that program we designed our own 3-D objects. Once our designs were complete, they were printed on a 3-D printer. Since we all got to make something, it was really personalized. You could make something quirky like a cow with a party hat or something more meaningful like a cloud with your name on it.
Actua and Science Venture did a great job and really helped us to understand technology. If we do say ourselves, these people were amazing!
We asked five students what they thought of the 3-D program and the 3-D printers:
Hanna: “There were 3-D printers and I’d never used a 3-D printer before. They were cool.”
Connor: “It was exciting and sometimes it was confusing but I figured it out.”
Matt: “The program was fun!”
Kayla: “It was hard but it was interesting.”
Marsden: “I had lots of fun and, hey, we didn’t do any school work!” (You’ve might have been tricked-this was school work).
Actua Maker Mobile is certainly doing something great for people all across Canada!
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Amy Eubank and Caitlin Thompson write for Journey Middle School