You have a 3D printer, now what?

Administrators, teachers, and students alike are eager to provide 21st century learning tools onto the campus and in classrooms. If you are thinking about purchasing or already have a 3D printer the million dollar question is, "what do I do with it" other than the obvious. What are the educational benefits that can be gained from having this relatively expensive piece of hardware.

I am remined of a Wendy's commercial from my childhood that asked, "where's the beef?!!" In this instance, lets ask, "where's the pedagogy?" I was very happy to meet up with my amazing teammate who informed me that she found a free web based software called Tinkercad that can be used to produce the 3D file type (Stl) needed to print a object. Tinkercad is an easy to use web based software that with a little teacher support even a kindergartener could use successfully.

With the use of basic shapes a student can create anything. Here are a few that can be used:

        

Using a combination of these shapes student can create 3D objects and save them as Stl files to print on a 3D printer.

I hope you have the chance to create your own object and print it!