Women's History Month- DIY RBG Necklace - SCOPES Digital Fabrication

Lesson Details

Subjects
Age Ranges
Standards
Fab-Modeling.1, Fab-Fabrication.1, Fab-Design.1, 5.RI.7
Author

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Author

Sarah Wallace
Sarah Wallace
Fablab manager
I run the Cleveland Mobile Fab Lab of MC2 STEM High School.   I work with K-8 teachers in the Cleveland Metro School District to expose young learners to the wonders of Digital Fabrication through fun, artistic, STEM projects.    Previously,… Read More

Summary

 Students will engage with a variety of RBG multimedia to learn about her amazing accomplishments throughout her life and career before designing and creating their own version of her iconic necklace.

What You'll Need

Access to computers

 

Maker / art supplies (scissors, glue, markers, paint, tape, beads, etc)

 

White paper plates or cardboard or cardstock

 

Possibly: 3D printer or vinyl cutter or laser cutter

The Instructions

Women's History Month Resources

Learn about LHM

 

Home

  • Have your students visit the Biography page and learn about one of the women featured on the site. You can assign students a person, or let them choose. This could act as a kicking off point to do a full report (a non-fiction writing prompt, or create a poster or google slide, etc.) on an amazing female figure, or it could be a short activity where the students have 5 minutes to learn as much as they can about their person and then give a short presentation of the ‘top 5 facts’ to the rest of the class.
  • NatGeo Kids has a similar resource that is a little more assessable for younger readers: Women Heroes
  • PBS Kids overview of Women’s History Month (2 minutes)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVrvMJWrJlk

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru4ib0mtbiE

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W53Ks824GTA

 

 

Celebrating Women in our Lives

Create a card for a special lady

There are so many women who have made an impact on history through their courage, discoveries and accomplishments. But which woman means the most to you in your life? Maybe a family member? Teacher? Coach? There are so many wonderful women in all of our lives!

 

Give students some time to create WHM cards for the important women in their lives. Encourage students to write personalized notes in the card that are grade appropriate and heartfelt, or include information about a famous woman from history they learned about.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Learn about RBG

Meghan Markle reacts to the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg — To Di For Daily - Breaking News on the British Royal Family - America's #1 Princess Diana Fan Site - Meghan Markle

 

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Design and Create

Create your own version of the RBG iconic collar

  • RBG’s intricate collars and necklaces became iconic over the 27 years she spent on the US supreme court. The collars and necklaces have been recreated countless times and resold as fashion, pins, made from beads, knitwear and more.

ACTIVITY

  • Have your students talk about why they think RBG wore such expressive necklaces
  • Is there a piece of clothing or an accessory that makes them feel more confident or strong?
  • Have students research RBG’s collars and necklaces over time, or show them this compilation of some of her more famous looks: RBG COLLARS

Create

  • Simple
  • Using a white paper plate, have students cut a circle out of the top/center as seen in the photo to the right and a slit along the top so the plate can be easily placed over the head. Have students draw their designs directly onto the plate and color with crayons, markers or paint.
  • Intermediate
  • First have students sketch out their designs for a collar/necklace on scrap paper. Have students focus on symmetry as all of RBGs collars were very symmetrical and geometric.
  • Using the plate method above, students can draw their designs on the plate, or cut out small pieces of colored paper to create a mosaic/beaded looking piece. Or allow students total creativity and invite them to create their collar using any materials they’d like from strong to pasta or cut up newspapers
  • *For older students, a plate might not be large enough, in this case, cutting out circles from cardboard, card stock, or fabric will work too.
  • Design using Mandalas
  • Have students create a mandala design by hand or using one of the tools below and use it as inspiration for their RBG collar
  • Structured online mandala creator: Steadtler
  • Free hand online mandala creator -mandalagaba
  • Fun Mandala Coloring online activity

necklace | Tinkercad

  • FAB
  • 3D Printing
  • Have students design their collars in Tinkecad. Be sure students focus on symmetry and overlapping to ensure the necklace would print well. I suggest that the students first create a necklace base to add shapes to so it can print with a solid flat back. Encourage students to use the Duplicate, Rotate and Align features to make their designs more precise
  • Full size necklaces may be challenging to print for time and materials purposes and some printers may not have the ability to print large items. Try having students sign their designs down to 2-3 inches in diameter and turning their designs into a keychain or magnet.
  • Vinyl Cutting / Laser Cutting
  • Simple: use your laser cutter or vinyl cutter to cut out the outline of the collar or necklace and allow students to decorate it.
  • Use your laser cutter or vinyl cutter to cut out small geometric shapes that students can arrange in patterns to create a symmetric, geometric design.
  • Design: If your students are familiar with a design software, have the design their own collar to be cut from cardboard, paper or fabric to make their own lace. You could also have the students cut out designs of HTV and transfer to an old tshirt!

 

Extensions

Expand on this activity

After the students design their collar it is up to the teacher to expand on the activity the following are some ideas that would work. Please let the MFL team know if you think of anything that should be added to this list!

ART: have students research ancient Egyptian collars and how they were created with jewels and gold.

HISTORY: Connect these power necklaces to armor and how female warriors of the past protected themselves.

MATH: Have students create a simple fractal design to use for a collar design.

ELA:  There are countless books about RBG out there and writing exercises for students of all grades to engage with!

Standards

  • (Fab-Modeling.1): I can arrange and manipulate simple geometric elements, 2D shapes, and 3D solids using a variety of technologies.
  • (Fab-Fabrication.1): I can follow instructor guided steps that link a software to a machine to produce a simple physical artifact.
  • (Fab-Design.1): I can be responsible for various activities throughout a design process within a group under instructor guidance.
  • (5.RI.7): Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

Lesson Feedback

One Response

  1. Sonya Pryor-Jones March 1, 2021
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