Professor Garfield and Makers Empire
3D design competition for schools
Teacher Resource Materials
TEACHER RESOURCE MATERIALS
Created by Sparky J. & Mandi D.
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This resource pack is designed to help teachers incorporate the
Professor Garfield Spaghetti Challenge Competition into their
classroom programs. The resource pack includes:
• Outline of Professor Garfield’s Spaghetti competition challenge
• Suggested lesson plan for competition
• Comic strip challenge worksheet for students
• Samples of 3D designed and printed spaghetti eating tools
• Additional spaghetti challenge ideas
• Cross-curricula suggestions
• Accompanying worksheets
The Concept
Garfield has found himself in a messy situation and he needs help.
Garfield has cooked up a huge bowl of spaghetti and is looking forward to a feast.
Unfortunately, Garfield doesn’t have any utensils to eat his spaghetti and has made a bit of a
mess! Your challenge is to design a tool that Garfield can use to eat his spaghetti.
The tool needs to be designed in 3D and be able to be 3D printed.
Garfield has realised that he has more than enough spaghetti to share with all of his friends.
He would like to use the tools designed in this competition to help him share his spaghetti.
You will need to tell us about your design so that Garfield knows which friend to give it to.
• How does your design work?
• What are its important design features?
• Who would your tool be suitable for and why?
• Could it be used by a very young child?
• What makes your tool creative and original?
To enter the competition students need to:
1. Design a spaghetti eating tool using 3D design software such as Makers Empire.
2. Submit their design:
2-1 in the Makers Empire app, via the competition section. Download the app
from http://makersempire.com
2-2 or via the competition section of the website https://professorgarfield.makersempire.com/
by uploading your .STL file
3. Submit a short description explaining how their design works and who it would be suitable for.
4. Due date - December 9th 2015
5. Prizes/judging - Information available on https://professorgarfield.makersempire.com/
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Lesson plan
Suggested competition lesson plan
1. Introduce Garfield’s design challenge using the student page.
2. Discuss students’ experiences eating spaghetti. What utensils do they use?
What are the challenges with eating spaghetti?
3. Brainstorm as many different types of utensils (forks, spoons, tongs, straws, chopsticks etc.) as you can.
Rank them in order of how suitable they are for eating spaghetti.
4. Ask students in small groups to think about people who might need extra help to eat spaghetti.
What kinds of utensils might be useful? Have they seen any eating utensils specifically designed for
people with additional needs?
5. Ask students to start thinking about the utensil they would like to design for Garfield. Use examples
provided to help stimulate ideas.
6. Students sketch their design in the appropriate section of the comic strip.
7. Students use 3D printing software such as Makers Empire to design their utensil.
8. Students write a description of their utensil including:
- How their design works including its special features.
- Who the utensil is suitable for.
- Why their design is creative and original.
9. Students submit their designs and descriptions
Health and Safety Warning: Please note that careful consideration needs to be given to the selection of
any materials used for eating and cooking purposes. Utensils used to eat or prepare food must be made
of non-toxic materials.
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© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
| 5
10 tips for good
design thinking
1. Research! The best way to imagine innovative design ideas is to observe people in natural settings
doing things that involve the problem you’re trying to solve. For this challenge, watch your friends or
younger siblings eating spaghetti. You can even eat some yourself. What’s the hardest part about
eating spaghetti?
2. Brainstorm solutions! What ideas do you have for solving the problem? Start by rapidly making a list of
everything that comes to mind. Don’t get too hung up on details. Just get the ideas out of your head.
3. Don’t limit yourself to one idea! Consider lots of possibilities. Sometimes the best idea isn’t your first
idea. Good ideas often come after you have worked through a few concepts.
4. Sketch! Drawing your ideas on paper will help you flesh out your ideas. Don’t worry about your drawing
skills. Sketches are meant to be rough ideas worked out with pencil and paper.
5. Team up! Brainstorming is often more effective when you combine your brainpower with others.
Bounce your ideas off of your mom and dad, aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and cousins.
6. Build prototypes! You can use construction paper, cardboard, building blocks or legos to prototype
your ideas. Prototypes don’t need to be perfect. Rather, they allow you to give shape to your ideas
and test them quickly.
7. Conduct usability tests! Try using your prototypes in a real scenario. You can also get friends and
family involved her as your test “users.” Get their feedback to find out which ideas have the most
potential.
8. Improve your designs! Your prototypes probably helped you see design flaws in your original ideas.
Some flaws might be fixed with just a few minor tweaks. Try that and test them again!
9. Narrow your choices! Once you have tested all of your ideas, you can begin to narrow your design
down to one or two of the best concepts. You may want to run one last user test now and ask
participants which idea they like best.
10.Polish your design! Once you have landed on your final concept, consider ways to polish and refine it.
You want to make sure you work out all the rough edges before printing your final 3D image.
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
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More Spaghetti
Challenges
Spaghetti Eating Race
Cook spaghetti with the class. Provide a selection of different utensils for eating spaghetti. Students select a
utensil that they think will be the best for eating spaghetti. The winner is not the person who finishes eating first
but the person who finishes with the least amount of mess. No splashes or spatters on faces, tables, floor etc.
Spaghetti Towers
Students work in groups to build a tower using only dry spaghetti and marshmallows. Which group can build the
tallest tower that can stand on its own without falling or breaking?
Cooked or Dry?
20 pieces of spaghetti need to be delivered to Professor Garfield using only a straw and pair of tweezers.
Would it be more efficient to deliver the spaghetti before or after it is cooked? Students need to test and justify
their conclusion.
Spaghetti Protector
A single piece of dry spaghetti needs to be posted to Professor Garfield. Students design a container that will
protect the spaghetti and ensure it arrives in one piece.
This could be made out of any materials or even be 3D printed!
The containers could be tested by exchanging with another school through the post.
Tongue Twister
‘Spaghetti’ is one of the words that many young children find difficult to pronounce correctly. Do you know any
young children who say ‘sketti’ or ‘pasketti’? How did you say spaghetti when you were younger? What other words
did you find hard to say when you were learning to talk? How can you find out? Students collect words that are hard
to say. What do these words have in common? What makes them hard to say?
Spaghetti for All
Garfield wants to share his spaghetti with all of his friends. Can everybody eat spaghetti? What reasons might there
be for somebody not being able to eat spaghetti? (Gluten intolerance, allergies, special diets, etc.) What
alternatives could Garfield provide so that everyone can join him in his feast?
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
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Cross-Curricula ideas
1.
Procedure writing
Write a procedure for cooking spaghetti bolognaise
Invent your own crazy spaghetti dish and write a recipe for it
2.Poetry
Collect spaghetti poems as a class (we’ve included a few to get you started)
Write your own spaghetti poems using alliteration (slippery, slimy, saucy spaghetti)
3.
Spaghetti stories
Read a range of spaghetti stories ( we’ve suggested a few to get you started)
Rewrite a spaghetti story from another character’s perspective or from the spaghetti’s perspective
4.
Spaghetti Headlines
The word ‘spaghetti’ is on the front page of the newspaper or feature story on a news website. Why? How many
headlines can you think of that include the word ‘spaghetti’?
5.
Spaghetti Research
Where did spaghetti originate?
What can you find out about the history of pasta?
How many different types of pasta are there?
What is the difference between spaghetti and noodles?
How did spaghetti make its way around the world?
What is the most popular spaghetti dish?
6.
Spaghetti Feast
Research different spaghetti recipes. Vote as a class on which ones to cook for a special lunch. How much will the
recipe cost to make? How can we make sure there will be enough for the whole class? How will we cater for special
dietary needs? Write a shopping list. Where will the lunch be cooked and served? How will the cooking activity be
organised so that everyone can be involved?
7.Experiment
What happens to spaghetti when it gets wet? What changes do you observe? Can wet spaghetti be dried again?
What do you predict will happen if you use hot water, cold water, milk, juice etc? How can you test your predictions?
8.
Spaghetti Moves
Can you move like a piece of cooked spaghetti? What about a piece of dry spaghetti?
What kind of music makes you think of wet spaghetti? Dry Spaghetti?
How many different types of pasta shapes can you think of? Can you make these shapes with your body?
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
8 |
Cross-Curricula ideas
9.Health
How can we include pasta as part of a healthy diet? Design a daily menu that includes pasta. How creative can
you be? Pasta for breakfast? A pasta dessert?
10.Maths
I want to fill a 200 gram container with cooked pasta. How much dry pasta will I need?
I want to fit as many pieces of pasta as possible into a 200 gram container. What is the best shaped pasta to use?
Design a new shape of pasta using acute angles.
Design a timer for cooking spaghetti. What is the ideal time for cooking pasta? How can you find out?
9.Health
How can we include pasta as part of a healthy diet? Design a daily menu that includes pasta. How creative can
you be? Pasta for breakfast? A pasta dessert?
10.Maths
I want to fill a 200 gram container with cooked pasta. How much dry pasta will I need?
I want to fit as many pieces of pasta as possible into a 200 gram container. What is the best shaped pasta to use?
Design a new shape of pasta using acute angles.
Design a timer for cooking spaghetti. What is the ideal time for cooking pasta? How can you find out?
© Paws, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
Garfield’s Spaghetti Bolognaise
INGREDIENTS
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 400g beef mince
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 celery stick, finely diced
• 1 red capsicum, finely diced
• 700g tomato pasta sauce
• 375g dry spaghetti
• grated tasty cheese, to serve
METHOD
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan with the heat on high.
2. Cook beef mince for 5 minutes, until browned.
3. Add diced carrot, celery and capsicum
4. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Add tomato pasta sauce and bring to boil.
6. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft.
7. Season to taste.
8. While the sauce is simmering cook spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water
according to packet directions. Drain.
9. Serve spaghetti topped with sauce and grated cheese
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Garfield’s Favourite
Spaghetti Stories
Garfield’s Favourite
Poems
More Spaghetti, I Say!
Spaghetti
Written by Rita Golden-Gelman
Written by Shel Silverstein
Illustrated by Mort Gerberg
Spaghetti! Spaghetti!
Untangling Spaghetti
Written by Jack Prelutsky
Written by Steven Herrick
When Freddie had Spaghetti
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
Written by Maria Dismondy
Strega Nona
Written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola
On Top of Spaghetti
Written by Paul Brett Johnson
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
Kenn Nesbitt
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Attribution
Authored by
Mandi Dimitriadis
Mandi Dimitriadis, Dip T., Dip JP., Dip TP., Director of Learning Improvement
Mandi has worked as primary, junior primary and pre-school teacher in many South
Australian schools. She managed education programs at the South Australian
MaritimeMuseum and has also worked as a special education teacher. Mandi
has held various positions with the South Australia’s Department for Educationand
Child Development including Manager of the History Curriculum and Manager of
Pedagogy and Learning Areas R-12.
© Makers Empire Pty Ltd 2015
Makers Empire
St Pauls Creative Center,
200 Pultney Street,
Adelaide 5000
E: [email protected]
http://www.makersempire.com