A journey into 3D printing

The Process

After attending a Fall CUE 2016 event where I went to several sessions about 3D printing, I felt that I was ready to begin the 3D printing journey.

After researching what the best 3D printers were for classroom use, I decided to present the Makerbot Replicator + to my administration. Two good articles about 3D printers are: PCmag reviews and Make magazine reviews.

While I was waiting for the printers to be ordered and shipped I began teaching 4th - 8th grade students how to create 3D models. I started them in project ignite with handpicked lessons that would teach them the concepts and language that is used in 3D modeling. Project ignite is now the learn tab inside tinkercad.com found at this link https://www.tinkercad.com/learn/

During this learning experience I begin to plan how to incorporate 3D modeling into the classroom lessons.

For example: 

Fourth grade was the easiest to plan. I decided that they would make game pieces for a history based game. First I had the students research their topic. We are in California so they individually researched the California Gold Rush using this  hyperdoc for guidance. Next the students formed groups of 3-4 to decide on the game board style, rules, instructions, and how they would incorporate what they learned from history into their game. Then I had them create a game board using Google Drawing. After all that was created the students then designed their game pieces.

Makerbot Replicator +

What I learned

Students had a difficult time understanding that their virtual design needed to be printed in the real world. Even though they had watched the 3D printer in action they still didn't understand that the model would be built from the bottom to the top. Also students had difficulty understanding that pieces on their model needed to be over 2mm in width. The nozzle on the 3D printer itself melts the filament to 2mm anything smaller becomes a mess. The other difficult concept was the concept of holes. To create an empty space in an object the student needed to create a whole, because in the 3D world the "hole" had a slight color at first they thought it would print clear. They also thought that a hole underneath an object would print. This brought about the conversation of can solid objects print and gravity.