Hello Everyone!
I work for a school district’s instructional technology department and I am looking for curriculum ideas for 3D printers. Does anyone out there have lesson ideas, for all grade levels, that use 3D printers? If so, please share any resources you can. Thanks in advance!
Check this out for starters: http://www.stratasys.com/industries/education/educators/curriculum/introduction-to-3d-printing
Thanks David! I already have that one though 
I’ve been thinking about this question. So far I’ve come up with three “tracks” that I think have enough substance.
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Manufacturing - Stone to plastic. Basically looking at manufacturing useful things from readily available materials for local use. Starting with flint axes for cutting and skinning the game you just clubbed, to arrows and spears for hunting, to blacksmithing horse shoes, woodworking tables and chairs, to welding steel bits together, to 3D printing. Basically there has always been this niche of needing to create something with stuff on hand to solve a need that is either short term immediate, or purely local. Inuits use whalebones, cavemen use stones, miners used blacksmithing, pioneers did a lot of woodwork, etc.
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Making things Bit by Bit - looking at additive manufacturing in the large and how you can build large complex things from simple structure. From termite mounds and bee hives to rocket engines. What materials work well, what are the properties of a “good” material, challenges in enclosed spaces, or overhangs.
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Designing for use - how many of the things around us are mass produced? and why? If we made our own plastic plates how might they be different than “regular” ones? Did we make the compartments different sized? Do we have a place to rest our butter knife? What about cups or spice dispensers, or measuring tools. Holders (paper clips, clothes pins)? Drawing tools? Etc. All of these things are now ‘printable’ and so we can look at them with fresh eyes and say “Is this how I would make a plastic plate if I only care about a sandwich and a salad?” The core question is what can you do differently if you’re going to produce the item locally for a specific person, versus the current constraint of making it cheaply and so as universal as possible.
I see two possible ways to approach 3D printers in a classroom, either as a way of producing students models or teaching them engineering. I think the first would be the easiest to apply across ages since programs like SketchUp are incredibly simple to use. You could have kids follow a tutorial for an initial object then create their own to be printed.
I was thinking SeeMeCNC was working with a local high school to develop a curriculum, but I could be remembering wrong.
It should be mentioned that @Brook_Drumm / @Printrbot have been talking about contributing to something like this. There are also a few people in this group that have authored books and/or teach community college courses about 3D printing (@Whosa_whatsis ).
http://Learn.printrbot.com is developing an open source, printer agnostic set of lesson plans. The first pass is available now. We sponsor the work here but endorse any school with any printer using it. Contribute back if you have ideas!
Brook
… Just in time!
Thanks @Brook_Drumm and @Matthew_Satterlee
As far as what I’m looking for…
I’m exploring ways to integrate the use of 3D printing into the classroom. I don’t, necessarily want to teach “3D Printing” but would rather use a 3D printer for teaching science, math, and even language arts and social studies! I am looking for specific examples of how 3D printing can be used to take every day core curriculum to the next level. If anyone has examples of students using 3D printing to plan, design, and build something to solve ‘real world’ problems, that would be ideal.
I’d really like the technology to be secondary to the learning that’s taking place, if that makes any sense. That is, I don’t want the 3D printer to be the focus. I’d like it to be a resource that the students use to solve a problem.
You already have the solution to your problem hiding in plain sight.
Your student will answer solve your problem better than any of the long-wided techno-geeks on this post.
I totally agree. It’s not about the machine, it’s what you make with it. Better still is why or how you make it - what the problem is you are trying to solve and what kind of thinking can lead to a solution. I think art is similar. Although learning to make paint or clay or metal cutters has value, the real value is the outcome of the work. Now that I say that, you can’t ignore there is a relationship between the medium being used and the solution you seek. I guess the thing that excites me most is that the problems that I face day to day require creative thinking, logic, imagination, discipline, patience, trial and error, dreaming… It’s all problem solving and creativity- stuff I desperately want my kids to learn, or at least foster and develop.
Brook
@Brook_Drumm don’t you also have a community Google doc w. A curriculum? I think it was on pb’s Twitter feed.
Yes! That’s the one.
Found it! https://docs.google.com/a/printrbot.com/document/d/1tctVjuCrxZLH8a3WrXn8YFC6SmLTR5YkZhj1-WtIr80/edit
Show them a video of what is possible and leave them alone to explore. This is the only way to learn. They will ask for your help if you are enjoying your self
Some of these next generation know more than us. Others are there to help us. Main thing is that you enjoy your self
They pick up the emotions and some read your mind
Humans are creative not robots