Challenging the ideas - 3D Printing

I have watched over the years of teachers doing some great things with the technology they have. The problem is when it comes to 3D printing, I see simple things being created. This kind of put me off. It has been however a journey, once since starting at HPSS and watching a great idea joining Mathematics and Technology and Art. Designing a pattern using mathematics, manipulating the pattern using technology and then using art to make it in clay and fire it. It was then I started to be interested.

We put in the budget to get some more 3D printers this year to start making use of the ideas that students come up with. Better still has been Tim from mindkits.co.nz providing some much needed ideas on getting them hooked up to the cloud through a raspberry pi and 3dprinteros. I have been trying it out this weekend and it is so much better than sd cards.

The 3d printers - ultimaker 2+ arrived this week and have been pushed into action to try out a few ideas, one is around learning spaces, or more the fact of developing tiles with ideas on them. This will form the basis of one of the projects the students will be working on in term 2.

"Not only were educators introduced to how easy it was to 3D model an object, but they found that with the right tool it can unleash unlimited creativity."
http://weareprintlab.com/blog/future-learning-spaces

The other is around a piece of infrastructure my brother needs to get his weather station, which I will be ripping off the data set for our students.

One of the ideas that I would like students to delve into is this one. 16 tiles to represent Mt Everest. I am hoping that the lessons will provide a basis for us printing off our our terrian around school to be able to develop tactile model.

It has been interesting developing the ideas that will go into a 10 week, 2 x 80min blocks around this. Also to go with the Innovate. Engage. Inspire. nature of this place.

Getting students to know where PLA comes from, and the plastics that they use everyday is one thing, getting them to think about the changes that can happen with technological products is another.

Also the ideas of gamification, hexagons seem to feature at the school to show links. Finding an activity to support this has been difficult.

The first idea was to develop the ideas of a city or a part of our area.

Then came kideville, I found this while doing some research around small cities/villages. This is a uk project that has parts of social science and technology, which, when I look at it seems clever at best.

Getting students working on a project, rather than small parts will allow for students to develop greater depth. Its not just solely based on one thing. It brings in the key competencies, as well as design thinking. I look forward to finding out more from the reseller later this week.  

Starting to manage 3D prints online....

Wonderful.