Exciting news!

igor · 13 Apr 2008, 02:10

i am now teaching a a class on Google sketchup at my school!. it is the first ever student taught elective in my school's history. so far i have had a total of two classes and the students are learning very fast. even one of the teachers is taking it.

if anyone has sugstions on things to teach or lessons to give, just post it here!

stu.c · 13 Apr 2008, 12:15

At our school we ran a maths unit on making 'nets' for chocolate boxes which the kids made in SU and then folded up the nets, glued them up, filled them up with chocolate, sold them and all the profits went to a charity. I recorded an SU tutorial on how to fold up the nets on screen using a programme called Camtasia which records your voice and the screen. So they could see whether or not their nets were going to work before they printed them out on card.
It was good fun and the kids loved it!!

S.

fbartels · 13 Apr 2008, 12:57

igor,

Very cool about your teaching a course in SketchUp. We've had a student teach SketchUp to teachers in short workshops but never an entire course. That is quite an undertaking. Good luck.

I've taught one semester CAD courses using SketchUp a number of times. You might find some of the material on my wiki helpful.

The url is http://dws.editme.com

Regards,

Fred

igor · 14 Apr 2008, 19:49

im teaching my next class tomorow! (4/15/08) wish me luck!! once again, if you have any sugestions for lessons/exersises, just post them here. any help is welcome!

plot-paris · 15 Apr 2008, 08:25

just hammer into them to keep the model tidy - you know, grouping geometry or creating components, where repetitions occur (the latter keeps the file size down). it is important for the students to understand the difference between groups and components; can save a lot of time lateron.
but spend enough time on showing them, how to enter groups to alter them and that it is impossible to manipulate a group, if you are outside of it (as if you try drawing on a sheet of paper that is covered by plastic wrap).

I dont know, what is your method of building a model, but I would advice, allways draw in layer0 (never change the active layer). if you want to use layers, group elements and move them into different layers. thus you avoid messing arround with the layers (group in one layer, geometry within the group in a different layer).

oh yes. and force them to keep their hands off the camera tools buttons (orbit, pan, zoom). that is what you have got the scroll wheel for (press scroll wheel - orbit; press scroll wheel + shift - pan; roll scroll wheel - zoom). like that they will change their point of view much more often and therefore avoid drawing in wron axes.

that is quite much for one lesson. it is better to start using layers not untill you are familiar with modeling and navigating in a desing.

Gaieus · 15 Apr 2008, 09:39

Here is a link to an "Education subforum" discussion where I posted a syllabus I "saved" from the old @Last forums .

solo · 15 Apr 2008, 09:45

My only advice is to let them play, yes play, let them get a friendly feel first. I have taught many kids and found that the best successes came from when I let them discover the tool first. Everyone of them got hooked, after that the questions will come and the advice / tutoring can begin.

igor · 15 Apr 2008, 13:44

thanks for the advice plot-paris and solo. ive tried to incorperate the "playing" that solo spoke of into my lessons. so far ive seen some pretty interesting results. and plot paris, i have tried to force them to use the mouse for navigation, but some of them are button die-hards. ill try to correct them today.

thanks again for the advice! more sugestions are welcome!

plot-paris · 15 Apr 2008, 15:27

you could of course just close the camera tool bar - so they have no other chance, but to use their scroll wheel

igor · 15 Apr 2008, 18:57

yes, i was just thinking of that. but then the o-so handy zoom extents tool would be gone. my class starts in about 5 minutes! (yse im posting at school). this class: realizing that things are not solid in SU, revised Folow Me tool lesson, and intro to groups/components. and all this is in 45 minutes! wish me luck!

remus · 15 Apr 2008, 19:01

You could alway show the the keyboard shorcut for zoom extents, ctrl+shift+e might be a bit of info overload though.

igor · 16 Apr 2008, 00:23

my advice for ganeral use of mouse and key board is: keep one hand on the mouse to use for orbiting and tool use, and the other hand on the key board for short cuts and modifyer keys (ie ctrl, alt, shift, ect). i personaly think that having to take your hand off the mouse to press a bunch of keys is slower than just pressing the button on the screen. i dont think the same for often-used tools like the orbit tool. thanks for the idea though!

my class today went very soothly! we learned how to make a sphere, advanced select tool uses, and the wonders that are groups and components.

some other mantra i have for my students is this: always keep a high vantage point. you shouldnt even be able to see the "sky". this makes modeling much easier.

you guys like it?