Virtual Modeling of Bedroom Design

Unique Advantages

Pedagogy

• Matches the preferred learning style of many of today’s students {Is it learning style or production style that virtual modeling accesses?}
• Enables students with limited drawing skills to render successfully
• Helps students capture interim versions of their designs
• Helps teachers assess the evolution of students’ ideas and their progression of learning
• Allows students to communicate by generating rendered design ideas for projected or printed PowerPoint presentations
• Eliminates waste of material resources
• Ability to engage in many iterations quickly provides a shameless way for students to build needed knowledge in timely fashion

Stem Content Knowledge and Skill

• Permits students to easily vary geometric attributes of a shape (e.g., length, width, height) and define resulting areas, perimeters, and volumes.
• Scaffolds students’ ability to visualize 2- and 3-D shapes
• Allows for easy repetition to support development of skill in using the software
• Enables the use and integration of other software (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint)
• Enhances the ability to use (and understand the use of) software as a powerful modeling tool

Design

• Fosters creativity and higher quality through iteration
• Allows for trying out alternatives without additional costs (in terms of time, capital, materials, equipment)
• Allows students to learn from trying out “What-if” scenarios with little risk
• Easy editing and duplicating of complex virtual objects, angles and shapes
• Provides instantaneous visual feedback to help make design choices more informed.
• Permits precise scaling and dimensioning of geometric shapes and elements
• Rapidly calculates geometric areas to help students check calculations

Social Networking

• Students can share virtual models over networked computers
• Work can continue in other places such as at home

Other Advantages

(not necessarily unique to virtual modeling)

• The software offers specific features, including ease of editing and replicating shapes and angles; allowing students access to an almost unlimited supply of clip art and other on-line resources; and representational reality.
• Reinforces key concepts and skills learned in class (e.g., modeling, design, ratio and proportion, scale, making and interpreting “nets”).
• Develops higher-order thinking skills (e.g., synthesis, analysis, evaluation) in the context of solving engaging problems
• Consistent with contemporary method of designing
• Supports creativity through vast library of already-rendered objects, capacity to save versions and return to them later.

Physical Modeling of Bedroom Design

Unique Advantages and Value Added

Pedagogy

• Students feel significant ownership of their constructed model
• Tactile and kinesthetic experience of the design complements and improves comprehension of the problem
• Physical model conveys ideas in unique ways that complement on-screen designs, especially for people with limited visualization skills.
• Doing physical measuring reinforces measuring skills.
• Geometry is experienced in a more meaningful, real-world way

Stem Content Knowledge and Skill

• Skill in the use of hand tools and machines and in the processing of materials is developed
• Promotes skills in effective management and use of limited materials to achieve a specific purpose
• Errors in math and design thinking are made visible through making the physical model
• Physical model provides a reality check to screen-based modeling (e.g., gravity can be absent in screen-based modeling).

Design

• Building a prototypical physical model is an essential component of the design process.
• A physical model provides additional feedback to designers, i.e., it informs designers where the virtual model may not be accurate and keeps the virtual design honest.
• A physical model better captures the irregularities and vagaries of a complex, real-world environment.
• Work with 3-D physical model is a necessary complement to work with virtual models (e.g., it is sometimes easier to view the impact of changes in object placement in the physical model).
• A physical full-scale prototype permits testing of designs under real-world conditions.
• Allows testing of prototype qualities not easily modeled on the computer. An example is ergonomics (the “fit” between the design and human users).
• Contributes added realism for purposes of visualization, presentation, and marketing
• Promotes creative thinking in that students may find it easier to create and develop their ideas when handling physical materials.

Social Networking

(not unique to physical modeling)

• Enhances communication skills through group discussion and planning
• Students recognize that teamwork is a necessity to get the job done effectively and in time