fix the fish

This project was a mind-bender for my Engineering 1 students. They had weeks of laser cutting design and process. They thoroughly understood kerf (the amount of wood that is burned away in the laser cut). They knew how to make slots for press fit. They had constructed several “builds” like my friend the Fish.

I gave them the plans for this fish and, of course, a completed model so they knew where they were going. But, I explained, there are two problems with this fish: #1 the slots are not the right size. Some are too large; some too small (so the build is too hard); and #2 the slots are mis-numbered so that the build doesn’t work. You need to make the slots uniformly the correct size (respecting the dimensions of the wood that is not uniformly 3mm) and renumber the pieces/slots so that anyone can build this fish by putting in the pieces 1 - 26.

renumbering the pieces

This is an exercise in thinking all around the fish. The first several pieces logically go first (the fishes snout are pieces 1 - 6) but if you keep building toward the back of the fish, you won’t be able to put the side pieces in.

There was quite a bit of grumbling until the group decided to make it a community challenge. After that there was a lot of laughing and trying again without getting upset. As a group they figured it out and changed the numbering so that my younger students can build the fish successfully.

Note to self: The road from grumbling to laughing is paved with challenge for the whole community rather than individuals. This is how much of the world works…in groups…so giving our students opportunities to do that is a good thing.