On this Monday, we’re celebrating milestones in the classroom and the teachers who make it possible. We’ve seen time and again that 3D printing allows students to retain concepts, develop new skills, and bring their ideas to life. Throughout this process, students can achieve their own unique milestones that belong to no one else.
A few years ago, we highlighted Vinny Garrison’s 8th grade class at A. MacArthur Barr Middle School in Nanuet, NY. Garrison updates a traditional engineering and design project with a 3D printed twist. Students design and drag race CO2-powered cars in a long hallway. Over the course of seven weeks, each student carves down a foot-long wood block into a car. Each design must include a compartment for the CO2 cartridge.
Instead of buying stock wheels, students use 3D design software to create and 3D print their own on a MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer. Students hoping to win go for sleek, long car designs and light wheels while others design fanciful rims; and yet others design cars that resemble a flower or favorite animated character.
By incorporating 3D printing, students can both learn design and engineering principles and focus on developing what interests them most about the project. Through this process, every student can achieve their own milestones —that perfected wheel design, increased speed, a lighter payload, a winning time. Students can even develop larger life skills.
In the midst of the action, teachers are the unsung innovators. The rewards of 3D printing in the classroom abound as students learn and progress —which are all milestones in and of themselves.
Courtesy of MakerBot.
