3D Printing - Week 7

Technologies such as 3D printing, including the 3D printer pen can be seamlessly used in education. Like most technologically advanced apps, online sites or physical items, these are becoming more and more prevalent and popular within the classroom. Setting as well in the corporate world. Due to this, it is imperative that us as pre-service teachers need to learn technically such as these so that we can use them in the classroom to teach the future generation of kids as they most likely will be needing these kinds of technologies within their future careers - similarly to how these technologies are already being used and are on the rise for my generation’s careers and future careers.

One way 3D printing can be used in education is, the teacher can ask the students to design anything they want or something that might help the in school - teacher can advise on the preferred size of the object for cost reasons - and send them screenshots or bring their sketches into school and show the teacher so that they can actually go and print these designs. This not only promotes student creativity, but also promotes the students designing something that might help them learn better in school such as a cool ruler or a cool protractor which might help them get more excited about learning in school.

The 3D printer pen - although extremely pricey, especially when a classroom would need more than 1 maybe even 10 at minimum for an average sized class - is a great technology that will assist kids in their learning and get them more excited about school. You could implant the 3D printer pen for math classes where the students could get the chance to try and draw or “print” a shape they either really like or one they struggle with and don’t understand very well. This would help with their understanding as well as make them view learning in a more fun and exciting way.

In class in week 7 we looked at a specific video about a boy named Caine who was extremely innovative and created his own arcade using cardboard boxes. I really enoses that video as it proves to other young students and children in general that you can dream big and make something happen if you really put your mind to it and want it enough. We also looked at the online technology MicroBT where we could play around and code something for our plant watering designs from the design thinking class in week 3. We then hooked up our code through wires to our plant watering design to show our idea of how our device would actually work and how it would water plants (as shown below).

References:

Ford, S., & Minshall, T. (2019). Invited review article: Where and how 3D printing is used in teaching and education. Additive Manufacturing, 25, 131-150.

Ford, S., & Minshall, T. H. W. (2019). Where and how 3D printing is used in teaching and education.

Ng, O. L., & Ye, H. (2022). Mathematics learning as embodied making: primary students’ investigation of 3D geometry with handheld 3D printing technology. Asia Pacific Education Review, 23(2), 311-323.

Chen, J., Xiang, S., Yuan, Y., & Zeng, Y. (2021, August). The Exploration and Practice of 3D Printing Pen in Primary School Education. In 2021 International Conference on Diversified Education and Social Development (DESD 2021) (pp. 6-11). Atlantis Press.