Why 3D printing in the classroom can be useful
- Author:
- Eva 3D
Support of the curriculum using puzzles and 3D printing
Some teachers can’t imagine using 3D printers in school lessons. Reasons mentioned are a lack of time or cost related problems (Pielsticker & Witzke, 2017). This is the reason why we want to provide ideas and lesson plans which directly can be used by teachers.
Nowadays it is important to use technology in schools to help and motivate students in learning. According to Witzke and Hoffart (2018) the use of 3D-printing is a great tool to use in schools in various ways. They use three different ways of using it in school. Firstly, there is a big amount of designed materials on the net, which can be directly printed to be used in school. Secondly, teachers can develop individual materials especially designed for the students. Thirdly, the students can model their own ideas and print them, where they can learn dealing with CAD-programs. Furthermore, this also trains spatial reasoning and self-determined learning can increase motivation.
In the curricula there are many topics which could be taught with the use of 3D printers. Already in preschool kids should get a first impression of mathematical thinking: dealing with geometric figures and characteristics, symmetry, … Students in preschool mostly work with haptic materials, which should help them understand. Those materials could easily be printed (https://bildung.bmbwf.gv.at/schulen/unterricht/lp/VS6T_Mathe_3930.pdf?61ec04)
If you consider the curricula of the primary school you can recognize geometry as a big topic in all four years. A focus is still on a playful way of dealing with mathematical concepts. Teachers can use GeoGebra Applets to generate little puzzles, where the students can train natural numbers between 1 and 9. After generating them they can be 3D printed. Furthermore, games can be invented, where the students can get a first impression of what volume means. There are two specific sub-points in the category of fields and figures in the curricula of the third and fourth class. They are about forming surfaces out of other materials (toothpicks, matchs, …) and designing mosaics, where 3D printing could be used as an added value (https://bildung.bmbwf.gv.at/schulen/unterricht/lp/VS6T_Mathe_3930.pdf?61ec04)
In secondary school a so-called “spiral principle” is very important. This principle means that every school year there are the same topics, with further added aspects. The advantages of this principle are a manageable amount of new content and the repetition helps remembering. Teachers can use individually designed models for different topics. Visual and concrete objects provide an extra dimension in studying and help build up more synapses. Hefendehl-Heber (2017) says that the origin of thinking is in acting and doing. This means that dealing with concrete materials in maths school helps students learn. Lengning, Meyer and Siebel (2014) collected the advantages of using concrete materials in school, as well. They say that students need them to build up appropriate ideas of mathematical contents. Moreover, materials can help to train, to argue and to switch between different ways of representation.
More puzzles and Logifaces blocks to print can be found here:
STL-files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Z62KqbamHAgZd5D9y_LzqNbyLxDQM084