Building a Cool Dome!

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Since 2018 I have developed my own version of a high school maker class after being inspired by attending the 2018 Bay Area Maker Faire back when it was at the San Mateo Convention Center. The project I would like to do is to create a human sized planetarium from cardboard primarily cardboard. The idea is to mark out and cut large ~40 inch cardboard panels into 2 different types of triangles and some rectangles to create a geodesic dome that could fit ~20-24 middle schoolers inside. We would also use a projector with a reflector to turn the inside of the dome into an IMAX style theater where we could play educational videos.

Prior to measuring and constructing the real dome students will be making much smaller scale models to ensure they understand the overall geometry and how the parts fit together before we attempt to make the real dome.

The learners involved in designing/cutting/building and assembling this dome are in their 2nd year of my maker classes (Creative Technologies II) and are 11th and 12th graders. However this dome would be used amongst the community as a center piece for our STEAM fair (March 25th) and other community event such as movie night fund raisers. So while only students in 1 class are working on it the impact extends beyond just this 1 class to the greater school community.

ACLC is a Title I school that has a negative balance currently so without this grant we cannot afford to do this project. The project will have a  great educational impact for the students working on the dome, and will be an inspiration for the school community.  It's pretty cool for students to create larger-than-human sized structures by applying math, science, and hard work. Future maker students will be able to assemble and disassemble the dome so we can continue to use it.

So far, we have finished the 3d print of the model and we're using the model to make a paper replica of the finished dome. We have also created 1:1 templates for cutting the 2 different triangles and have started cutting the triangles to shape.

Thank you very much,
Michael Kim
ACLC Science + Maker Teacher