Construct3D 2017

3D design and printing help bring problem solving, spatial reasoning, art, and engineering to middle and high school classrooms. Come see some of the projects and challenges my students have engaged with. They have engineered, tested, and iterated crumple zones for CO2-powered cars, they have devised Martian colony habitats, and they have made stands to display their lithophane images. These experiences give them the message that they are problem-solvers and makers who can impact the world around them. Get a preview of the crumple zone crash test car here: https://goo.gl/HizG0d

3D printing is mainstream and readily available. It fits nicely in the STEAM model—integrating science, technology, engineering, art, and math with meaningful personalized learning opportunities. It can be seen as a creative technology that to allows us to express ourselves, explore 3D puzzles and solve authentic problems. It might even be considered as a 21st century form of whittling—allowing us to create and refine artefacts that meet our desires and needs. Artefacts that we might choose to share with others who might simply rescale and adjust to print, or who might remix and reform to fill a different need—and share again. 3D printing is accessible to intermediate and middle school children. Besides the creative potential, it brings a tangible object and process to support the learning of fundamental mathematical concepts (coordinate systems, scale, mirroring, rotation, time, rate, density, etc.). As teachers of mathematics, we need to engage with 3D printing, we need to climb over the threshold of the technology by tinkering, exploring and mastering its potential and then develop accessible, low friction activities and challenges that allow for personalized learning. In this presentation, we will share our experiences and thoughts on this engagement and development process.

Digital fabrication tools offer exciting possibilities in the realm of fine art, however for many who want to offer these processes to their students, there may be no clear path regarding how to incorporate such methods into their current curriculum or coursework. In an effort to contribute one version of how that can work, Associate Professor Colby Parsons will present his own efforts to expose students to 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser cutting, particularly by introducing these things as part of foundational art coursework in a relatively small art department.

Digital fabrication methods provide a rapid means of form making, but do not necessarily cultivate creative problem solving skills, multi-dimensional thinking. This presentation examines methods of pedagogy that encourage students to pivot within the creative space through multimodal explorations and interludes.

A series of reflective exercises — Design Popups — were integrated into a 15-week sophomore-level design studio. Students were introduced to digital as well as analog methods of design production and analysis (3D printing, laser cutting, metering, sketch models). Throughout the semester, students were provided with opportunities to consider alternative solutions, explore issues of materiality, test assumptions, and reconcile misconceptions as part of the design iteration cycle.

Preliminary results showed that shifting between different modes of production and analysis, promoted deeper engagement and understanding of design tools and decisions but also revealed insights about the role that (dis)comfort plays in exploring and risk-taking with new methodologies.

The presentation will feature examples of student work and assignments. Time will be provided for questions and open discussion.

This session will present on how to use children's book as a means to stimulate ideas for 3D printing. This method has been used with elementary age children to introduce 3D design. Several classrooms have common reads and we want to use those readings to be jumping off points for design projects. We are currently looking to move this approach into Middle schools.

Desktop 3D printing arrived in the center of a perfect storm of accessible open hardware, software and 3D scanning, a virtuous circle that offered pathways and entry points into a previously inaccessible and expensive process. At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) the introduction of low cost, 3D printing on campus opened the floodgates to a sea change in making for the campus community. This presentation will discuss the challenges of integrating digital fabrication workflows into the SAIC curriculum and talk about lessons learned over the last 6 years of desktop 3D printing, sharing creative outcomes, curricula experiments and current projects.

The frame factors of a k-12 environment are unique in nature for integrating new technologies into the curriculum. 3D-printing is also a unique area which lies in the intersection of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Such an opportunity to integrate curriculum needs a paradigm shift in resource planning in a k-12 environment. Traditional sources of money, allocation and training of manpower, usage and maintenance of machines or equipment, and time planning are inadequate to meet the challenges and reap the rewards in this integration process. The authors will share their experience in this area of integrating 3D printing into the curriculum and the changes they made in resource planning and maintenance. This has been a living breathing process that has evolved over a period of three years. It has involved the participation of all the stake holders to make it a sustainable learning environment that can integrate the advancement of technology into curriculum. Currently it has reached a threshold where it has started attracting even those who were originally apprehensive to join the process.

Traditional lecture-centered approaches alone are inadequate for preparing students for the challenges of creative problem solving in the STEM disciplines. As an alternative, learner-centered and other high-impact pedagogies are gaining prominence. The Wabash College 3D Printing and Fabrication Center (3D-PFC) supports several initiatives on campus, but one of the most successful is a computer-aided design (CAD) and fabrication-based undergraduate research internship program. The first cohort of four students participated in an eight-week program during the summer of 2015. A second group of the four students was successfully recruited to participate the following summer. This intensive learner-centered research experience challenged students to employ digital design and fabrication in the design, testing, and construction of inexpensive scientific instrumentation for use in introductory STEM courses at Wabash College. The student research interns ultimately produced a variety of successful new designs that could be produced for less than $25 per device and successfully detect analytes of interest down to concentrations in the parts per million (ppm) range. These student-produced instruments have enabled innovations in the way introductory instrumental analysis is taught on campus. Beyond summer work, the 3D-PFC staffed student interns during the academic year, where they collaborated on various cross-disciplinary projects with students and faculty from departments such as mathematics, physics, biology, rhetoric, history, classics, and English. Thus far, the student work has led to three campus presentations, four presentations at national professional conferences, and three peer-reviewed publications. This presentation highlights initial progress as well as preliminary assessment findings.

Designing with Code! Remember telling the Logo turtle to turn left 90 degrees? My middle schoolers started with the classic "draw a square" programming prompt, and within a few classes we were designing bowls and vases with code. Find out how we used Scratch, BeetleBlocks, WaterColorBot, and our 3D printers to apply our knowledge of geometry and calculus.

Critical thinking and creative problem solving skills are the most sought after by employers. Encouraging students to take risks and innovate is the antithesis to standardized testing that holds only one correct answer. Students need opportunities to make mistakes and learn from their failures so they can persist when challenges occur and improve upon their original ideas. Many U.S. classrooms don’t allow for creativity and do very little to develop critical thinking. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate ways that teachers can begin to change their teaching to support creativity and the maker mindset in their classrooms.

3D printing offers a unique opportunity to bring STEM topics to life in the classroom. Unfortunately, most teachers have little to know training in how to design effective learning activities to make use of the technology. This presentation explores the idea of Prototype Problem-Solving Activities and shows how they can be designed to foster student engagement and learning. Using a constructionism framework and focusing on demonstrating effective ways for teachers to be facilitators, we will explore the potential of the process of prototype creation to learn STEM content.

When a parent donated a 3D printer to my 3rd and 4th grade makerspace, I jumped at the opportunity to integrate this rapidly evolving technology into my Lower School’s curriculum. After several frantic months of trial and error and a introductory 3D-printing workshop, I designed several 3D-printing projects that enhanced my 3rd graders’ Africa unit and allowed them opportunities to create meaningful and innovative artifacts for their classroom museum. Students designed 3D-printed cookie cutters of African animals and wrote creation tales about them. They also coded geometric designs with TurtleArt and imported them into Tinkercad to create stamps for marking cloth in traditional African Kente designs. During my talk, I will share what I learned as 3D-printing neophyte and what others should know as they begin to incorporate 3D printing into their curriculums.

Slide Presentation
Lesson Plans

Students become highly-engaged in the learning process when they are having fun and can create a product of their own design. We designed lessons that integrated all areas of STEAM in our K-6 school-wide 3D printing initiative. These lessons engage students in collaboration, engineering design, science, math, technology and art. At every grade level students design their own 3D printed objects building on their skill sets. Starting at the 4th grade level students learned to code, utilize the engineering design process, prototyping, peer collaboration, sketching, and sharing their learning with others. Students worked in collaborative groups to sketch, design, prototype and build a 3D printed model of their chosen landform. Teams engaged in discussion and debate over best design practices, as well as collaborating with other groups when problem-solving within their own designs. Students then built upon these skills to create projects with real-world applications and participate in the online 3D printing community and entering online competitions. These students also became ambassadors for 3D modeling in the science classroom by presenting to peers, teachers, and elected officials, as well as providing “tech support” to K-1 students beginning their 3D projects.

Link to slide and teaching materials I shared during the talk.
http://tinyurl.com/kxseykr

In this session, I will outline some strategies we have used to move 3D printing from a one teacher show to more of a school wide experience. I will focus on how building a realistic infrastructure backed by good workflow and a bit of inspiration can help others in your school to see the power 3D printing has to change learning in your school. I will outline some cool projects we do, the setup we have done to enable the capacity and some inspiring words, pictures and 3D stuff.

Stuck on how to use your 3D printer with the youngest students at your school? In a downtown Manhattan school, students as young as 2nd grade have been creating their own designs for projects that align with the science curriculum. Some of these projects include a cargo boat challenge, a skyscraper research project, invention prototypes, glider testing, and cell organelle creation. Elementary science teacher Paul Schmitz has also developed a variety of mini challenges that can be applied to create an after school club based around 3D printing for elementary schools. These are all done with kid-friendly programs such as Tinkercad, Thingiverse, Blokify, and 123D Sculpt. He's here to prove to you that digital making can start at any age!

Makers are often identified as with those with high levels of artistic and technical skill. But many people live in settings of poverty, with few educational options. A unique program from the University of Illinois provides a pathway for these individuals to create and “make” to improve their livelihoods regardless of their literacy or resources.

The use of 3D printing in the classroom helps brings engineering to life. By engaging in problem-based work, students gain applied knowledge that develops critical thinking skills as well as real-world experience. This session will explore how Palatine High School uses 3D printing as a critical component of our STEM-based curriculum. It will also explore several projects the school has undertaken including building functional combat robots.

This session will also outline how an accessible manufacturing method like 3D printing provides students the opportunity to go through the entire design process from start to finish. By printing functional parts, students can experiment with modern materials, test their designs, and gain experience that would have been not have possible without this technology.

3D Printing has the potential to revolutionize the way in which products are made, bought, and sold. However, 99.9% of the world has never actually seen a 3D printer or know how to use it. Thus, there is a need to teach the world how to 3D print. To help accomplish this goal, we recently developed and launched a 3D Printing Specialization via Coursea. The courses are developed in a unique academic/industry collaboration with Autodesk and Ultimaker as lead partners, and platforms such as Shapeways and 3D Hubs as fulfillment partners. In less than 6 months, over 10,000 learners have enrolled in this specialization. During this presentation, we will discuss the origin and impact of this specialization and share insights about what we have learned thus far about the global market for 3D Printing education and how others can share our vision for bringing 3D Printing to the world.

3SPACE (3 Dimensional Solid Printing Active Classroom Experience) at James Madison University is the first 3D printing classroom in the country built for general education courses that are open to all students and departments at the university. The classroom features consumer level filament printers in a hands on environment with at most two students per printer, and since Fall of 2013, has hosted a wide variety of events, both for the university and for the general public. Our flagship course is a one credit general education science lab that has been taught every semester for the past four years. This presentation will outline some ways to teach such a course from a general scientific perspective. We will cover a variety of options, including 3D design programs (all free for educators and students), assignments, group projects, common complaints, and ways to make the class more or less `scientific'.

Learn how to get the most out of your classroom 3D printer by developing creative lesson plans that incorporate art, technology, design, science, and math. We will examine ways to blend art and technology in practical ways and look at interdisciplinary applications that will be relevant to K-12 teachers in any subject area. Examples of student prints and lesson plans will be shared to help get you inspired to create your own projects and lessons.


Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11DFNQ3ow3SVXa7J7irKg8TcR08t3eEPm-4pEa4G-ua8/edit?usp=sharing

Talk will showcase a simple way to help students document their work while they use the engineering design process to solve problems.

In this session, a number of stories will be shared about youth enterprises that have resulted from access to 3D printing. The stories will feature youth who have presented their businesses to President Obama and youth who have continued their 3D printing businesses into adulthood. I will share lessons learned, how to take advantage of learning opportunities that are presented in entrepreneurial efforts, and the impact we’ve seen in these youth.

While 3D printing continues to rank among the most significant and quickly maturing technologies in the professional world, logistical challenges and perceived irrelevance for many fields have limited its use in the classroom. This is true even in the teaching of art history and archaeology, where frequently the materiality of objects is integral to their interpretations. Our presentation will outline the potential benefits and challenges of using 3D printed objects and 3D printing activities in the study of visual and material culture. Focusing on examples from our teaching and making work, we will consider the practice of 3D printing art historical and archaeological artefacts through the lens of well-established theories of teaching and learning such as critical making and experiential learning. In addition, the value of advances in 3D printing technology (e.g. metal and ceramic filaments) for teaching with, and about, historical objects will be highlighted.

In addition to wood, clay and paint, in recent years 3D printing has become a basic material at the City and Country School in New York City. Exploration with this technology is giving our students a new dimension in modeling their ideas and actualizing their designs. See how 5th and 6th graders at our school are using 3D printing to make meaningful connections with their social studies curricula. Student projects to be discussed include: Mesopotamian themed cylinder seals, Medieval wax seals, movable type for the school’s 19th century printing press, Viking themed chess pieces and Renaissance architecture.