by Krista True
| Krista True is a gifted K-12 facilitator in Ottawa, Kansas serving students of all ages across her district. After teaching in elementary education for a decade, she moved into GATE and is currently working on a master’s in gifted education. I’m so grateful she agreed to share about this creative holiday project! |
Last year, I was looking for something fun and engaging to do with my gifted students during the holiday season, and when I ran across this coded snow globe project, I knew I wanted to try it! I hope by sharing my experience, along with a few tips, you will be inspired to try it as well!
The original project involved placing a store-bought figurine inside, but I had my students create their own figurines using our 3-D printer. Figuring out the design, size, and scale was part of the project, and this was a great way for them to practice 3-D printing skills.
In this post, you’ll find everything you need if you’d like to do this with your students, and I’ve included videos of two student samples. The project was a huge hit with my upper elementary students and perfect for those few weeks between holiday breaks. I’m looking forward to starting this with my students this last week of November!
To begin, the students needed to determine the scene or object to portray in their snow globes and then do some research to help them with their design. One student created a tundra snow globe with a wolf amid jagged mountains. Every project was unique.
Once students had decided on their scenes, they began designing their 3D objects, understanding the importance of sizing/scaling items to fit in confined spaces. Students used TinkerCAD to print the 3-D objects and incorporated both preloaded and original shapes. They followed the directions (original project link) for placing them in the globe containers.
The students then worked on coding the lights and music for their one-of-a-kind creations. This required only basic coding skills, but for an added challenge, you could have students code holiday songs by reading music and following the musical patterns. I recommend using the Adafruit software paired with the AdaFruit Circuits for the best results. Simply download their programs directly to the circuit board, wire it up, and enjoy! The directions for downloading from Adafruit can be found here.
TIP #1: As students are finishing up this project, make sure you allow ample time for the snow globes to dry before you add electronics. The snow globe containers have a 2-tier cap. When you screw off the first one, the one inside will pop out. The 3-D figures are glued to the inner cap. I recommend following the instructions provided with the plastic snow globes concerning the use of E600 craft glue for best results (Hobby Lobby).
TIP #2: Purchase a few extra snow globe containers! These snow globes are only available during the holiday season, in the craft section of Hobby Lobby. Once the globe is glued shut, it’s nearly impossible to get it back open to change the inner contents, so I like to keep a few extra on hand just to be safe!
TIP #3: Test out the electronics yourself before doing this project with students. It took some time to figure out. The music was not loud enough, so I ended up adding an AdaFruit speaker to enhance the sound.
In the picture at the top of this post, you can see that we had wooden stands for our globes. I worked out a deal with our woodshop students to build stands for us. It would be a great experience for students to make their own if you have the time and resources to do so.
TIP #4: You may want to cut a hole in the outer base to make room for wires. The photo here shows the setup of the circuit pieces to make it work!
IMPORTANT NOTE: I didn’t allow my students to take the codable piece home, due to the cost, but after recording videos of each globe, we replaced the circuits with battery-powered Christmas lights so that students could enjoy their snow globes at home.
If you try this with your students, I would love to see the fantastic designs they come up with! Leave a comment below and share your photos at bigideas4littlescholars@gmail.com.
Check out the Holiday/ Seasonal page for additional project and lesson ideas. Happy Holidays!
MORE STUDENT-CREATED SNOW GLOBES
