Real Life is in 3D

As you may have heard, this year Channahon School District 17 acquired two 3D printers -- and they're really cool! But one of the "problems" with 3D printers is trying to figure out how to use them in meaningful ways. Sure, it's fun to have kids print out name plates for their doors or lockers, but how does that tie in to anything at school?

One way to connect using the 3D printer to what is happening here at school is find things in your curriculum that lend themselves to creation and visualization. For instance, I know Tony Urbanski has had some students design pyramids based on the pyramids they studied in the Egypt unit for social studies. There has even been talk about having kids try to create a model of the Great Wall of China. Can your kids find a geometry tie-in with what you are doing in math? What about cells, atoms, or other science-related items? Scale models of homes or famous locales studied in literature? Creating a new musical instrument or a piece of sculpture in music or art? The possibilities are endless -- ask your students for ideas! They are sure to come up with some very innovative ideas!

If you're thinking about implementing some 20% time/genius hour opportunities, have kids do some research into practical things they can design and create. Here is a recent real-life example. The picture below shows two items. The white item is a piece of plastic that was used in my master bedroom closet on the end of the wire shelving unit. It connected the bottom of the wire shelf to the top shelf. It's probably only 2 or 3 inches long. The white one is broken; that means that the bottom part of my shelf was sagging and in danger of bending or ripping out of the wall, causing me to have to consider buying a whole new shelving unit for my closet or trying to scour the internet for a replacement piece (I don't know the manufacturer for the shelves or what that thingy is even called, so if I miraculously found the right piece online, I'd likely have to pay a few dollars for one little piece of plastic).

The white piece: broken connector. The green piece: 3D printed replacement!

OR a replacement could be 3D printed! I brought the piece in to Jeremy and asked him to experiment to see if a replacement could be printed with the 3D printer. After taking measurements and designing it, he printed one for me but discovered he didn't make it strong enough. It broke before I got the chance to try it out in my closet. So, growth mindset at work, he re-engineered and another one was created -- and it is now in a new, happy home in my closet, holding my shelves together!

I asked Jeremy to work on this because I didn't have any kids who were available to work on this for me, but had there been kids I could talk to, I would have approached them first. This might seem like a silly project, but this gives kids an authentic audience for their work. They are helping someone solve a real-life problem. It doesn't have to be as grand and benevolent as a prosthetic limb; it can be fixing someone's closet.

My 3D printed shelf thingy doing its job in my closet :-)

If you would like to find a way to offer your kids the chance to try 3D printing, let me and/or Jeremy know. We can help you come up with ways to fit it into your curriculum and show you and your kids the applications to do the actual creating.