To Print or Not to Print
One Educator’s Critical Analysis of the Use of 3D Printing in the Classroom
“Can’t you just 3D print some prostheses and send them to those in need?”
This was a question from an academic administrator, several weeks into my new position as a middle school STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) teacher teaching 3D design and printing, while I struggled to make my 3D printing lessons meaningful for students.
Starting the semester, using 3D System’s Cube 3D printers, I oscillated between lessons familiarizing students with the 3D environment through strict instructions or lessons giving students maximum freedom to design any conceivable 3D object. Neither opportunity resonated with my students. By the end of class, they were either frustrated by constraints, like being off by a few millimeters, or weren’t challenged by simple exercises, including creating their name in 3D.
My dissatisfaction led me to my administrator’s office, but “printing some prostheses” in my class wasn’t the answer I needed. While there are incredible, impactful, and world-changing organizations like e-NABLE dedicated to the production of 3D printed prostheses, these 3D designs, such as e-NABLE’s “Osprey Hand,” are already created and archived in the confines of the web for the unforeseeable future.
Schools across the US feel increased pressure to become more STEM focused. To meet that directive, schools acquire 3D printers by purchase or donation, then often struggle with integrating them into the curriculum.
Yet, as many educators know, the impact of 3D printing on student learning is not contained within the act of pressing the print button and letting a machine do its magic, though it is admittedly entertaining to watch. Rather, students are challenged to develop better spatial reasoning by constructing 3D models in a 3D environment, the “pre-work” necessary for any self-designed 3D print. Evidence has cited the importance of developing spatial reasoning in children and adolescents, particularly because of its ability to increase achievement in science classes.
Schools across the US feel increased pressure to become more STEM focused. To meet that directive, schools acquire 3D printers by purchase or donation, then often struggle with integrating them into the curriculum. Schools lacking access to 3D printers can feel that they are missing an opportunity for their students to become more acquainted with twenty-first century tools.
I challenge myself and other educators to critically engage this notion and evaluate the value of 3D printing and 3D design. How can we use 3D printing to increase our students’ necessary spatial reasoning skills?
One example of a useful 3D modeling program is Tinkercad, an intuitive and robust online 3D design service that is appropriate for both beginners and experts. Tinkercad allows users to drag pre-made 3D shapes onto a 3D work plane, then orient and manipulate them into potentially very complex objects. Students, who are typically just becoming acquainted with the concept of an X and Y axis, are now challenged to incorporate the Z axis into their designs. Designs made in Tinkercad can be exported to a 3D printer or they can remain digital and never become rendered. The 3D printer is an accoutrement to this already valuable learning experience, rather than the focus of the lesson.
SketchUp is another helpful 3D modeling software, used by novices and professionals alike. I have found SketchUp to be particularly beneficial in teaching architectural maneuvering of scale models of various structures. Like Tinkercad, printing what students design in SketchUp is optional.
To critically engage with 3D printing, ask yourself: what problem does 3D printing solve in my classroom? What skills do I hope students develop after being provided access to a 3D printer?
Also, ISTE has recognized the importance of developing meaningful 3D printing experiences in the classroom and has published useful resources for getting started. For me, the most helpful of their recommendations was to visit my local makerspace to learn more about various types of 3D printers and how they function.
Probably the most valuable resource for 3D modelling that I have encountered is Wolfram Mathematica. This tool engages students not by compelling them to create a 3D model as a compilation of existing 3D shapes, but to truly design their model from scratch using the Mathematica programming language. As a computer science instructor, I will always believe in the value of learning coding logic in ways that are both text-based and visual. Using Mathematica to render 3D designs is educationally beneficial for the development of students’ spatial reasoning and computer programming skills.
To critically engage with 3D printing, ask yourself: what problem does 3D printing solve in my classroom? What skills do I hope students develop after being provided access to a 3D printer?
My answers to these questions vary, but I’ve developed my own rule of thumb: if an object can be fabricated without the aid of a 3D printer, do not use the 3D printer.
As a hobbyist, access to a 3D printer has allowed me to print specially sized containers for my classroom, create architectural models of various roofing styles for side-by-side comparison, and help a friend conduct research on Michelangelo’s unknown early works by making proportional comparisons to his known creations.
As an educator, I am still waiting to learn more from 3D printers other than how to get the printers to work properly or how to perform necessary surgical operations on damaged or dysfunctional filament cartridges. 3D design, however, is a tool that I will continue to employ in my classrooms and empower other teachers to utilize, whether or not they have 3D printers. As Electric Girls expands its programs and offerings, we plan to use Mathematica to integrate our computer programming lessons with 3D design.
Access to 3D printers for individuals and schools will continue to grow. My hope is that we educators will continuously evaluate the purpose and function of these new tools in our classrooms while keeping student learning as the focus of our decision making. My administrators eventually approved my shifted focus to the importance of 3D modeling over printing. But as engineers continue to innovate the ways that 3D printers function, and as they continue to improve the ways they operate, will administrators have the same response? Well-functioning 3D printers exist, and are only becoming more cost-effective.
What effective 3D learning experiences have you facilitated in your classrooms? I look forward to learning from readers’ comments.
About the blogger:
Flor Serna, @flor_serna
Flor Serna, Founder and Executive Director of Electric Girls, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Technology from Loyola University, with minors in business and computer science. In 2015, as a response to her experience as the only female recording engineer at Vital Sounds Recording, she founded Electric Girls to develop leadership skills in young girls through their learning of electronics and computer programming skills. Electric Girls has served more than 200 girls in the greater New Orleans area. Flor previously taught STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) to fourth through seventh graders at Louise S. McGehee School and is currently the part-time director of the production studio and Mobile Idea Lab at St. Martin’s Episcopal School in New Orleans, Louisiana.
