Thursday, October 8, 2015

Webquest Ideas

To begin thinking about our webquest focused on 3-D printing, we first thought about the idea of multiples.  It is possible to 3-D print many of the same object an infinite amount of times as long as you have the design for that object and what effect that might have on the artistic process.  I was particularly struck with the idea that, while engineers are typically the ones using 3-D printing, artists are the ones who push the boundaries when it comes to this process.  It is important for artists and art educators to make it known that art is an important aspect of school and life that should not be overlooked.  For this webquest, we thought it would be helpful to the artistic community to show some ways that these students can begin looking at whether they want to pursue a career in the arts.  We are going to give these students a taste of what it's like to be an industrial designer and combine art with entrepreneurship.  Our idea is that these students will form design teams and think of inconveniences in their life (such as headphones getting untangled, or being left-handed in a right-handed world) and come up with a simple solution to this inconvenience.  The groups will each design a prototype and print it in the 3-D printer.  They will then pitch their idea to the class as a way to learn how to express their thoughts to a group.  Hopefully, this will help break the barriers between art and other subjects in school along with opening new doors for students who might be interested in pursuing an artistic career.