By Conor O'Brien, Secondary Design Teacher
In August 2023, Grade 6 visited the Zoo Zurich to carry out primary research of the whole zoo, taking into consideration: the layout of the zoo, the animals in each zoned habitat (keeping in mind the future plans), identifying the textures in the plant life, and everything else that could inspire our project. The designs shared in this article are a result of the students creating a product that can be sold in the gift shop as a way for visitors to hold a memory of their visit to Zoo Zurich.
The time doing a project for the subject of Design can be a little overwhelming and cause some distress as each student strives to have a successful finish. Even though the students had a lot of moving parts and at times juggling these was difficult – I am really glad to say they all showed tremendous resilience and determination coming towards the end. In particular the students who used the after school catch up sessions, these can be a real game changer.
It is worth noting that all students received the same sized material, one piece beech wood and one piece acrylic plastic. Overall, I am delighted with the outcome of the project, and creativity did not shy away!
Emma has presented a wooden frame with the addition of a puzzle concept. This took a lot of preparation, with the use of Adobe Illustrator for the wood and plastic laser engraving and cutting, processing her given wood piece into thinner material, and cutting the wood to suit the size of the frame.
Aditi shares with us her final product which is inspired by the direction signs you find when visiting Zoo Zurich. Aditi worked extremely hard on this project, and her attention to detail was very inspiring, and as a result created a great souvenir.
Her journey involved the use of the laser engraver for embedding the font into the wood, processing the wood to make it less thick and to create more quantity of wood, chiseling a slot in the base for holding the post, and sanding the final pieces after gluing. The combination of processes has definitely prepared Aditi for more upcoming challenges in the subject of Design.
Additionally, the images above showcase the most common concept towards the product which includes laser engraving a design from Adobe Illustrator. After doing so, some students opted to fill in the engraved area with a black marker leaving a clearer image of the design. This technique is very effective with plastic, and hopefully it will be useful for future projects as this exposure is extremely useful for diversifying the skillset of our students and building their confidence when working with materials.
“I am creating three 3D printed animals for my Design Project focused on the Zoo Concept: Holding a memory; a rooster, an elephant, a monkey, and a leopard. I am working on them by creating 3D models using tinkercad before we start 3D printing them.” – Carl
Teachers Comment:
To start, and in Carl’s words “these are super cute”. Carl successfully took on a different voyage of discovery by using our 3D printers in creating his solution. It is worth noting, I advised students to take full ownership of this method as I did not have the capacity to support the use of a 3D modeling programme, and using it, however, Carl was already skilled in this area and it made the process very easy.
His project was unique and it definitely represents his personality which is always a wonderful result to produce. I believe his confidence in the use of a 3D printer has increased a lot and will surely maximise his potential for future projects.
“I am making a circular picture frame with different sized pieces of wood and it will not look perfect as this is the concept for my Design. In the end, I will add a picture of an animal into the circular frame and hopefully be able to hang it on a wall. This will hopefully help people to remember their time at the Zoo.” – Victoria
Teachers Comment:
Victoria took a different approach, she showcases her creativity in this solution by using smaller pieces of wood to develop a circular frame which then has a clear plastic face. A hand drawn sketch from her visit to the zoo is then placed into the frame to reveal a very beautiful moment she witnessed.
“I am creating an animal themed décor out of wood, protected by plastic. First, I drew the animals on my iPad, followed by editing them in Adobe Illustrator, before projecting it onto wood using the laser engraver.” – Jolie
Teachers Comment:
Jolie decided to create decor items that could be used in the house as a way to remember the time at the Zoo. I believe the minimalist approach was extremely creative and effective for this solution. The concept included the need for cutting out circular profiles from the wood given, then laser engraving an Adobe Illustrator file onto the wooden face, and this was followed by gluing the circular plastic onto the wooden face.
Here you can see some live shots from the workshop environment with some instant results due to our laser machine, which definitely provided the students with a lot of opportunity for high quality results in an efficient way.