AMST 204: American Foodways

Students are expected find or design a model to represent a food they are doing a research project during the semester. When they present on their model they’ve been asked to reflect on why they chose/designed their model and what the process was like. They’ve been shown Thingiverse as a starting point. Encourage them towards Tinkercad if they can’t find a pre-made model that meets their needs.

Design: If they’ve never used Tinkercad make sure they go through the beginning lessons. You can help them figure out how to get the shape they want in Tinkercad (i.e “Is there a shape that looks like this?” “This is almost the shape I want how can I change it?”), but encourage them to describe to you (or even draw on paper) how they imagine this will look. Try to avoid dictating the design.

Printing: When helping them get their model ready to print describe in as much detail as you can why you are telling them to make adjustments (e.g. why you are putting a raft or supports). This will give them more information for their presentation when they talk about the process.

Lastly, encourage them to paint their objects to get detail they may need. Example: one year a student designed a spam can (a fairly simple object) then painted it to look like it.