Paper Boat

Objective: Students will explore the relationships and transformations of making 3D objects out of 2D materials. They will practice and develop skills related to 3D scanning and printing.

Tools/Materials Required: HP Sprout and Capture Stage, 3D Printer, paper, tape

Depth of Knowledge: Skills and Concepts

Teacher’s notes are in purple. For the student’s version, see Paper Boat Student Guide. For the student’s version in Spanish, see Barco de Papel.

Prepare: Learn about the key ideas in this project

Many three dimensional objects are made out of two dimensional materials –wood, sheet metal, fabric, even paper! Origami is an entire art form based on this idea of taking two dimensional paper and making an intricate three dimensional object.

Origami is a great technique for making things out of a simple and available material. But paper isn’t always very strong. What if we could design an object in paper, and then create a prototype of it in plastic using a 3D printer? Let’s give it a shot!

Practice: Try as many activities to as you would like to build your skills

Complete the Custom Cookie Cutter project as an introduction to 3D printing and TinkerCAD skills.

Learn the art of paper-folding by using the Origami app on the HP Sprout. After you’ve learned some of the basics search online for more models you can fold, or try to create your own.

Practice 3D scanning by following this tutorial to make a paper vase. First, use paper and tape to make a cone that can be scanned. After scanning you will use the Mesh Mixer app on the HP Sprout or another computer to clean up imperfections from the scanning. 3D scanning is very cool and very useful, but it isn’t always perfect, so you will usually need to fix your model in the computer after scanning.

Produce: Dig into the project and make it your own!

Make a paper boat! Actually, you can make anything that combines your new skills in Origami and 3D scanning. Will you make something useful? Or fun? Or decorative?

Produced by Digital Promise Global, with thanks to the Open Educational Resources listed throughout this guide. Distributed to Learning Studios schools as part of HP, Inc. and Microsoft’s Reinvent the Classroom.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You may share this project or modified versions of it under this same license.