The Magic in Me! With Tinkercad and Micro:bit

This is a series of STEAM projects that were designed to explore the inner magic in every student: what they love doing, what they are best at... We were facing some problems at school, where some students felt excluded from their classmates, and we started this to remind them that they all have special abilities, that they all had things in common with each other, and, most important of all, that there's magic in everyone of us.

The students feelings', Magic, 3D Design and Augmented Reality are the bases of "The Magic in Me". They loved designing their magic wand to remind them that they all are special, it bonded all of the people in the class, and it was amazing to be see that, what they had designed, could become real when printing it in 3D!✨

Supplies

• Mobile electronic device (laptop, tablet...)
• Apps:
• Tinkercad
• CoSpaces
• Chromavid
• Merge Cube
• micro:bit
• 3D printer and PLA filament
• Copper foil tape
• Light-emitting diode (LED)
• Green clothes for a green screen.

Step 1: "What Are You Best At?" Create Your World in CoSpaces

We will start the project designing a world in CoSpaces where we can explain all about ourselves: what we are good at, what we love doing, what are those things that we love sharing with our friends...

1. First, the teacher will open a class in CoSpaces and give the code to the class’ students. To avoid their feeling of being lost by starting out of nowhere, we can share them a template to start with: https://edu.cospaces.io/UAX-TVV (image 3)

2. Here are some instructions on how to use CoSpaces, if it's the first time you are using it:

• Adding characters (image 4)
• Modifying text (image 5)
• Adding gifs and other images

3. Modify the main character - Mini Me:

• Delete the one on the template (double click on the character and press DELETE)

4. Add your own character:

• Go to library - Character
• Click and drag the character to the virtual space

5. Place the character on top of the cube or wherever you would like it to be by dragging it:

• There is an option to move it up and down.
• The is a different option to move the character forwards or backwards, up or down, or to the sides, depending on what you click.
• There is also the possibility to escalate your character to the size you would like.

6. When we double-click the character, we can edit the colour of -almost- everything: skin, hair, jeans, jumper… (image 6)

7. You can add an animation as well, by clicking twice on the character. (image 5)

Here is a tutorial with all of the steps and screenshots of them.

Now it's time to share your CoSpace with your colleagues, and they can add their thoughts on what they think you are good at. This is the best part, as you will find out things that people think you are amazing at and, maybe, you have never noticed before.

In case, there would be no internet access, this is a mini book to explain all about yourself in an unplugged. It is attached here.

Step 2: Design Your Magic Wand to Unlock Your Potential

Now that we know what is the magic in us, we will design our own magic wand to unlock our own potential.

It's time for the teacher to start start creating a class in Tinkercad (image 3) and making the students joining the class. You can do it by:

• Including the class link into our Google Classroom/Moodle. (image 4)
• Facilitating the class code to the students, so that they can join the class.
• Pasting the list of students. (image 5)

Then, create the activity and, if needed, you can share a template of a basic magic wand so that the students can delete if they like, but also that it's a starter point to those who need it: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/isDk0lTlRLY-the-magic-in-me-magic-wand-template(image 6)

Here are a couple of Tinkercad tips to get started:

1. Click and drag the objects that you would like to include.

2. Then, select all of the objects you would like to align and do it.

3. Also, if you can't find that specific thing that define you, it's possible to create it with the "scribble" element. (image 8)

As we will do real magic with our micro:bit, we can include a micro:bit holder for it. It is possible to know the exact size of the micro:bit, as there is a real-size micro:bit in the shapes library, in "electronics". (image 9)

✨Finally, they are free to start creating their magic wand, let the MAGIC BEGIN!✨

Step 3: Print the Magic Wand

Now it's the time to export the .STL file from Tinkercad and import it in Ultimaker Cura to include the settings to print it in the 3D printer.

Step 4: Coding the Magic Wand

In this step, we will create a circuit with the copper foil tape, and a LED light.

IMPORTANT TIP:

Don't forget to take into account the polarity of the led lights and connect the longest leg of the LED (positive) to the micro:bit pin (0 or 1) and the shortest leg (negative) to the ground pin of the micro:bit.

We can use Makecode to code it or Scratch with the micro:bit extension.

Here is an example of the Scratch coding: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/691725324

Step 5: Imagine Your Magic Spell

Now we need a magic spell to cast when we find we lack the magic in us.

That day you feel low, that you are not able to do anything correct, when you've had a bad day... your magic spell will help overcoming your problems by reminding yourself what you are best at.🥰

Step 6: Record a Video of Your Magic Self

Finally, we will add the last magic spark to our project, by recording ourselves using an invisibility cloak and appearing and disappearing as we would like. We use green clothes to create a chroma key, and also the app called Chromavid. We can also use clothes of any other colour, but they should be alike (all red, blue...)

NOTE FOR THE MAGICIANS:

The invisibility cloak should be the same colour as the background, or else it won't work.

Here is the link to the video we created with our students, what led to a different activity: a breakout! Feel free to end this project as magical as you would like.

This is something that we should all remind: that you are AMAZING every time and in every way.

As Dumbledore said: It's funny how historic days seem so ordinary when you’re living them.⚡️💙✨