4th graders using openSCAD

[peetersm 119]

Hi,

this area was looking empty, so here's a post that was in art of printing (before we had an educational area).

We're doing a good amount of 3D printing with our K-7th graders at our small school. Here's a link to a local cable access news show. We have three printers Ultimaker Original, MakerGear M2, and Ultimaker Original+

...there is a shot of the UM at the end.

Enjoy!

http://www.publicmedianet.org/blog/k12-comstock3d

[ignatius 19]

Wow! really interesting what you are achieving there, those kids look promising!.

Congrats and keep it doing!!

[SandervG 946]

Thank you for posting this, you are doing a great job!

Is this the first class who you are doing this with?

What have you learned from the experience?

[peetersm 119]

Thank you for posting this, you are doing a great job!

Is this the first class who you are doing this with?

What have you learned from the experience?

 

We are going into our 3rd year now, those kids were from the 2nd year. We have learned a TON! kids love 3D printing, you can get at so much math and other technology ideas when the carrot at the end is their own 3D printed object.

You can look over some of our slides from two presentation we did at the 2015 US NSTA STEM conference , here

http://tinyurl.com/kxseykr

[toniszym 0]

This is fantastic. What software are you using for the kids?

[geert_2 149]

Excellent!

You can't start early enough to get kids interested in technology.

In traditional education it is sometimes forgotten that the purpose of studying is to be able to actually use that knowledge. The only real knowledge is being able to do things, thus "active knowledge".

So-called "passive knowledge" - thus recognising that someone else can do something, but you can't - is no knowledge; it is only the first step towards knowledge.

I believe that all education (math, physics, chemistry, language, whatever), should be given with practical goals in mind. If students understand what they can do with the subject, in their own life, they will be much more interested.

[peetersm 119]

This is fantastic. What software are you using for the kids?

We do a lot with openSCAD at the lower grade levels. It's free, cross platform, reinforces mathematics and computer coding, and has a easy learning curve if you're only doing basic stuff yet is very deep if you want to do fancy things. With the really small kids we keep them in 2D art programs as an intro. see this write up

Once the kids get older (13yrs+) then we can introduce things like tinkercad (due to legal reasons).

The High school kids use a lot of different tools: meshmixer, tinkercad, (looking for a replacement for 123D Catch - but that was great while it lasted), autodesk, blender.

[redsalamander 4]

I love seeing that they can use OpenSCAD and its great for them to learn,

But they are going to hate you when they discover parametric CAD. Software like FreeCAD allows them to use the OpenSCAD language but when you're tired of spending 10 minutes on a cube you can switch to the part option and just draw.

Prusa use OpenSCAD and Freecad to draw all their printer parts.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Guest

[nzo 16]

As a beginner to 3D printing I often find myself using the phrase "That's amazing!" Here it applies too to @peetersm's'>peetersm's wonderful story of 4th and 7th graders learning OpenScad and 3D printing. And I particularly enjoyed @geert_2's'>geert_2's response. You hit the nail on the head Geert.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Guest