Why You Should Introduce your Kids to 3D Printing in 2022
Students and a teacher 3D printing. Image source: Edtechmagazine.com
In today’s world of digitization, where everything can be easily designed digitally before putting it out into the actual world, it becomes more and more crucial for our next generation to become skilled at designing. We’re seeing a massive shift in the way we interact and engage with the world around us.
The blurring of the line between what we call “virtual” and “actual” has led to an industrial overhaul, where we see every new company ultimately becoming a digital company. The exponential growth in computing power and technological advancement in the past few decades have given the world some amazing tools and services, including an incredible invention known as 3D printers.
3D printing works in a manner that allows us to give physical, 3D form to our digitally designed models and structures. This opens a whole lot of possibilities in various fields, including architectural models and prototypes, construction of mechanical parts for real-life use, printing, life-size accurate 3D models of bone and muscular structure in the field of biology, and even printing complex mathematical models and chemical bonds in a tangible form. While all these cover an advanced use of 3D printing, this technology can admirably be used for teaching and education purposes, giving us many advantages and possibilities. As this technology becomes increasingly accessible, educational institutions and educators integrate it to make learning more fun and engaging.
The kind of 3D printer most often used in a classroom setup is FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers/machines. These 3D printers work with the help of actual computers connected to the printers. Generally, a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) blueprint compiles a 3D model designed on a 2D computer screen.
The printer scans the blueprint and thus the structure of the object. The printer then prints the object by the process we call “additive manufacturing,” where an object is created by adding material layer by layer. These prints typically use materials such as plastic, metal, rubber (etc.). There are several 3D modeling software available that helps kids learn 3D modeling and 3D printing. A good example is SelfCAD. With SelfCAD, the students can easily create 3D models, both simple and complex ones without having to spend a lot of time learning the software.
There is an online as well as an offline version and kids can model, sculpt, render, and even prepare the designs for 3D printing without having to switch to another program. Now, let’s talk about why it is beneficial for students to learn and use 3D printing in their learning and day-to-day designing.
Importance of Introducing Kids to 3D Printing
1. Develops Enthusiasm
Enthusiastic children. Image source: Telecom Toolbox
3D printing is all about interacting with real-life things and objects. As we know, kids and students generally learn more effectively when they are taught through experiments and creating things on their own instead of going through books after books of the same things. 3D printing in schools offers students and educators the ability to sketch out their concepts and even their ideas and model them in the real world. The excitement and enthusiasm come naturally to students when they can touch and see things in real life rather than trying hard to imagine a picture in their minds.
2. Inculcate Design Sense
When students indulge in creating their projects through 3D printing, they directly or indirectly learn about aesthetics and design sense which is crucial in today’s world. Even before creating something in the real world, students have to make a clear picture of that same idea by joining lines and creating shapes on their computer screen with good enough precision. This helps kids develop good design skills and use digital designing tools that can later be utilized in more fields related to designing. Therefore, 3D printing in schools ultimately helps students develop universal design language.
3. Supplements the Academic Curriculum
While we talk about including the 3D printing tool in our education system as patterns, it’s essential to understand that this technology makes the existing ways of learning more efficient and effective. 3D printing in schools is more about re-thinking how we educate and teach students. Roughly all of the subjects, ranging from mathematics, biology to history and architecture, can take advantage of this revolutionary technology to help students understand these subjects in a better way. Not only will they be able to gain something from their teachers and tools, but they can also become active participants in the whole teaching-learning process.
4. Reviving Art
Kids working on their art. Image source:learningliftoff.com
There is art behind all kinds of imagination. When it comes to 3D designing and printing, the same principle can be assumed and applied at all levels of learning. From starting till the end of creating a 3D project, students use their creative skills to draw out an idea on a piece of paper, building on their power of visualization of the final product they are looking at.
This process combines the power of science and technology and embraces, nurtures, and preserves the students’ artistic skills, which have become crucial keeping in mind the changing scenarios and demands of industries that are gradually but moving online. Developing artistic skills will only make students shine in their professional careers when they move ahead.
5. Increased Participation
Students participating in a class. Image source:Teachhub.com
More curiosity means more enthusiasm and participation from students. We all are aware of how much kids love to interact with things in the real world. We’ve discussed how 3D printing in schools can make kids enthusiastic about learning. Grabbing young kids’ attention can be a problem for many teachers and educators. When the teaching is done through constant engagement with physical objects, more and more students want to be a part of it. This also ensures that through visual learning, more and more information can be grasped by the kids and thus developing their muscle memory. Even the group and team projects can be done more effectively. When students become a part of a team/group, they can give better results and productive outcomes in the classroom.
6. Preparing for a Design Career
Someone drawing on a tablet. Image source: Careergirls.com
We need to understand that while a lot of students pursue careers in the STEM field, a whole lot of students look to pursue careers in the design and art fields. Introducing them to 3D designing at an early age inculcates a sense of design aesthetics and develops design intelligence in students. Not only this, it expands their mind into thinking about careers outside of the status quo. This boosts their confidence and allows them to participate and indulge in design-related activities. Early exposure to design studies alongside major subjects like mathematics & science builds a positive mindset towards this field. It hence helps the student to make better choices in the future.
7. Develops Problem-Solving Skills
It might come in as an added advantage, but 3D printing in schools can open up more possibilities and opportunities for students than we think of initially. The process of 3D printing is an art that is usually missing in the standard classroom setup. When they use 3D printing for problem-solving, kids can work on a real-life challenge on a micro-scale. This allows kids to analyze and figure out questions practically rather than just solve them in words and numbers. It helps develop not only problem-solving skills but also aids in developing personal confidence in resolving their issues related to life.
So here we are. We’ve discussed 7 of many major points on how 3D printing technology can bring about a revolution in the field of education. We might undermine the impacts it can generate in the day-to-day learning and teaching in schools and colleges, but soon enough, we might see these machines all around us!
As for learning to use these machines, it’s first essential to know and learn how to use computer software that can effectively and efficiently create 3D designs printed in real life. Once a difficult thing to learn and use, design software these days is more competent than ever. Design software such as SelfCAD is easy-to-use browser-based as well as downloadable 3D design software. SelfCAD has the most intuitive tools and features that allow students to sketch, render and model their 3D design on the platform itself. No need to download heavy software on your PCs. There is no need to go through years and years of college courses to learn irrelevant skills in the modern world of technology and design. With SelfCAD, you can start your design journey today at $0. Yes, now you can learn and design your first 3D model in a matter of weeks and months without spending a single penny on buying subscriptions of heavy and complex software.
Enjoy powerful modeling, rendering, and 3D printing tools without the steep learning curve.
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