SchoolArts - October 2007

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TOY DESIGN Brian Hutcheson

When students completed the two-dimensional artwork, they wrote a short description of their toy and gave it a name. Through www. digication.com I created a free e-Portfolio for this project, which is a website that acts as a central hub to share each student’s flat pack toy. I collected the designs along with the stories and, after scanning the template, I uploaded it as a PDF to the website.

Constructing the Toy The next step in the lesson was to build the original template into a three-dimensional toy. I demon- strated how to properly cut out the template, reminding students not to cut off the tabs that would help hold their toy together. Finally, I showed the students how to fold and assem- ble the toy. Glue or double-stick tape can be used to hold the toy together.

Concluding Steps

A central part of this project was to foster community and encourage sharing, so students created invita- tions for their friends and family to visit the website, download a tem- plate, and build their own toy.

Though we ran out of time to evaluate the final product, I would have liked to have had an award ceremony where students voted on whose toy used color in the most exciting way or whose toy was the most original. In addition to a final evaluation, a formative evaluation after the toys are designed in two-dimensions might also be a great time to gather the students to look at one another’s work.

Reflections

This project connected strongly with students, engaging them in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional aspects of art and design and utilizing technology to

display their work, as well as fostering community within the school and the greater public. Students often asked to take home blank templates to create other toys and were eager to see both their toys and their classmates’ toys on the website.