3D Printing

Follow Along with the Engineers of Room 1

Last year the Arcadia Unified school district's theme was "What if. . . . " The question I'm asked was "What if we had a 3D printer in our 2nd grade classroom?" The answer was incredible. Students learned a lot about using technology but I was also amazed by how much they learned about perseverance, problem solving and team work.

Whether you are a Room 1 family member, a teacher thinking about using a 3D printer in your own classroom, or are just interested in watching what these young engineers can do, I hope you'll enjoy following along here as we document some of our adventures in 3D printing.

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Step 4: Print a Downloaded stl File

September 17, 2015

Our next step is to let each student choose a file to download and print on their own. With Halloween just around the corner, they've been given a choice of a few different monsters from MyMiniFactory.com to print. This time the kids are the ones using the mouse, downloading the stl file, opening and printing it. It will take us awhile to get through everyone's project, but I think it will be well worth the wait.

When a student's monster is printing they are allowed to take their work over to the Maker Space table to keep an eye on it. They have really enjoyed watching their projects print.

Step 3: Watch it Print

September 14, 2015

Today the students got to watch the printer print! I showed them the basics of how to download an STL file, upload it into the Afinia software and send it to the printer.

Then, students got to sit and watch it print, touch some filament, and hold a printed object. Our first print job is to print a dozen little hearts to give to everyone who gave money to our Donors Choose grant and helped pay for our 3D printer.

Step 2: Set it up for the 1st Print

September 11, 2015

Our printer arrived after school on Friday! I stayed at school to unpack, assemble, install, and initialize it so it would be ready to print on Monday with the kids. Following Afinia's Unboxing and Setup video with a bit of extra support from the User's Manual it all went well.

Since I've never actually used a 3D printer before I did a test print to make sure everything was ready to go.I found a small project to print on MyMiniFactory.com and simply downloaded the free STL file from there and uploaded it into Afinia's software. Less than an hour later, I had a little plastic elephant with moving legs!

I can't wait to show the kids on Monday.

Step 1: Get a 3D printer

August 29, 2015