I’m often asked what are the benefits of 3D printers in schools. Too often people look at the ‘product’ that is being made by the students and incorrectly believe that the educational value is in this final product. They look at the bookmark / bag tag / coin that is painfully created in the 3D printer and wonder how ‘useful’ that could possibly be.

However, this is not the right way to look at the problem. The real educational value in these projects is more along the lines of the process that students follow. What we are teaching students, is to be able to look at a situation and see if they can see a problem to be solved (Problem Identification). Once they can see that problem, we then show them ways to take that problem and break it down into smaller, more manageable problems (Problem Decomposition). Once they have a manageable problem, then they start thinking about a possible solution. This is where 3D printers really shine as a tool within the classroom. Students can come up with prototypes with easy to use 3D modelling software, and actually see their creations come to life. This is incredibly empowering and engaging for students. What then takes this to the next level, is the fact that students can evaluate their own creations, make modification and generate a new prototype in a matter of hours or just days. The ‘cost’ of failure is greatly reduced, affording them the chance to be more create.

These are just two of my own personal example that I like to show Students and Teachers. Both of these ‘products’ will not change the world, however they do solve problems that are relevant to me. No company in the world would be able to make a business with either of these products, and as such I would never be able to ‘buy’ one. However with the growing ubiquity of 3D printers, I am able to create them myself, to solve my own little problems.

Card Holder: My wife and I love to play cards, and this little box neatly holds 2 packs of cards, a notepad to keep scores and a few pens. It took a few prototypes to get the dimensions just right to snugly hold the cards.

Light Holder: I needed to mount these solar powered lights on our driveway and didn’t want to drill into the metal posts. These holders took me 20 minutes to model in TinkerCAD, and 2 hours each to print.

So remember, the printer is just the tool we use to help students realise their visions. Give students real world problems to solve and let them come up with crazy solutions that they can test in the real world, with a real ‘product’ that they have created.