10th Grade — 3D Modeling with TinkerCAD: Designing & Printing a Keychain

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

On a blank piece of paper, draw all the shapes you'll use for your keychain design. What size do you want it to be? Use a ruler to measure the exact size in millimeters.

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do we create a 3D printable design that uses multiple shapes?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Sketch a keychain design on paper, including exact measurements in millimeters.
Create a TinkerCAD account and use solid and hole shapes to build a 3D model.
Add custom text to a 3D model using the text tool.
Export a finished design as an STL file and prepare it for 3D printing.

🧰 What You'll Need

Paper and ruler (for the design sketch, in millimeters)
Computer with internet access
TinkerCAD account (school Google login)
3D printer + slicer software (Cura)
Filament

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Sketch & Set Up

Do Now (5 min): sketch initial shape ideas for your keychain on paper.
Mini-lesson (5 min): what makes a good 3D-printable design (size limits, sturdiness).
Independent sketching (20 min): finalize your keychain sketch with exact measurements in millimeters, using a ruler.
Guided account setup (10 min): create your TinkerCAD account and join the class.
Share (5 min): show a neighbor your sketch and get one piece of feedback.

Day 2: Build in TinkerCAD

Do Now (5 min): review your paper sketch -- what shapes will you need? Mini-lesson/demo (8 min): teacher demos combining solid and hole shapes and adding text in TinkerCAD.
Independent build (27 min): recreate your sketch digitally in TinkerCAD, combining solid and hole shapes and adding personalized text (e.g. your name).
Save & screenshot (5 min) for your Drive portfolio.

Day 3: Export & Print

Do Now (5 min): what do you think "STL" stands for? Take a guess.
Mini-lesson/demo (10 min): teacher demonstrates exporting an STL file and using the Cura slicer.
Independent work (20 min): export your design as an STL file, load it into Cura, and prepare it for printing.
Documentation (10 min): document each step of your process in your Google Drive portfolio.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

📚 Key Words

TinkerCAD: A free, browser-based 3D design tool commonly used to introduce CAD (Computer-Aided Design).
Solid / Hole (Negative Shape): A solid shape adds material; a hole (negative) shape cuts material away when combined with a solid.
STL File: The standard file format used to export a 3D model so a 3D printer can read it.
Slicer Software: A program (like Cura) that converts a 3D model into instructions a 3D printer follows, layer by layer.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Teacher reviews each TinkerCAD project individually and gives feedback before export; final printed piece checked against the original paper sketch for accuracy.

Exit Ticket: Why is it important to sketch and measure a design on paper before building it digitally?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

How you submit today's work depends on what kind of work it was. Physical/paper work (most of this semester so far): photograph it with a classroom camera, upload the photo from its SD card onto a computer, and save it into your portfolio -- that upload is your submission, and the physical piece itself is yours to keep, the same as in Grade 9 (your notebook is the one thing with a home base in the room, and even that's your call to bring home when you want it). Digital work (once you're producing files in Photoshop, second semester on): no camera needed -- instead, EXPORT the file. Export your finished project as a JPG, as a PNG, AND save a copy as a PSD (all three), then upload all three into your portfolio. Either way: the portfolio upload, with a description, is what actually counts as turning the assignment in for credit.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress piece to your portfolio (the Google Drive folder you started in Grade 9, becoming your Google Sites portfolio in Lesson 10) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what tool/skill it used, and one thing you learned. Keep it current -- don't save it all for the portfolio-website lesson.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “3D Modeling with TinkerCAD: Designing & Printing a Keychain.” This project asked: “How do we create a 3D printable design that uses multiple shapes?” I used TinkerCAD by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry

🔗 Want to Learn More?

Tinkercad Lessons

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same spatial-measurement math Geometry covers in volume and surface area, made physical.

Career Connection: This is the exact entry skill for Industrial & Product Design and Architecture.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Design and print a small, useful object that solves a real problem for a club or classroom (a cable holder, a name tag, a tool). Start here: measure the real object it has to fit or hold with a ruler first, and build your model to those exact millimeter measurements — a print that's off by 2mm won't work.
Model a mock product concept (a phone stand, a game piece) and write a one-paragraph "pitch" as if presenting it to a manufacturer. Start here: block out the basic form with simple primitives (cylinders, boxes) before adding any detail, since a clean base shape matters more at pitch stage than fine surface work.