This resource stood out because it offered a robust curriculum that could easily blend into the art classroom and library setting with great resources such as a teacher guide and slideshow presentation for every lesson. 

Additionally, we already have the necessary hardware (3D Printer and Chromebooks).

On the middle school level, we choose this resource because it gave us an opportunity to bring 3D printing into the school.  The school where this program was piloted does not have access to 3D printers.  A 3D printer was borrowed for this trial. 

Context (grades, etc.)

# of lessons taught, title of lessons

include links, if any

Art Class, Grade 4

NextWaveSTEM 3D Printing

Lesson 1: Design Tools Pt. 1

Lesson 2: Design Tools Pt. 2

Lesson 7: Designing a Stamp

Lesson 8: Mirroring

Lesson 9: Introducing 3D Printers

Lesson 10: CAD Applications

Lesson 11: Prepare for Printing Pt. 1

Lesson 13: Test, Improve, Reflect Part 1

NextWaveSTEM |3D Printing| Exploration of 3D Development Using TinkerCAD: Grades 6-8

Lesson 1:  Computer-Aided Design Tool

Lesson 2: Modeling (modified lesson to print out a Keychain instead, did not want students to have their addresses printed or in the system)

Lesson 3: Modifying Designs

Lesson 7: Slicing and Preparing for Print

Lesson 8: Printing in 3D

Lessons were overall successful.

The resources were easy to use. Formatting, colors, images and links all aided in the success of the lessons.

I would absolutely recommend this resource to others in a similar situation (3-5 elementary art class).

I will continue to use this resource and plan to work it into my annual art projects.

The teacher's guide is a great resource, we were especially thrilled that it included learning targets, standards support and a script. 

Challenges that came up were students arriving to art class without a device or a device that needed charging. Other challenges included students having different abilities with Tinkercad depending on their previous experiences with the application. Many new students with limited English.

Overcame challenges with sending reminders to classroom teachers for students to bring their charged devices to Art. Paired up students to be helpers if they had previous experience with Tinkercad or for help translating.

Another challenge was the pacing of the lessons in regard to a rotating "specials" schedule. When the class only meets roughly once a week, it is not possible to dedicate months to a particular unit. A way to overcome this challenge is to skip or combine some of the lessons. Many of the last few lessons of the unit were able to be combined and simplified due to the time constraints of a rotating specials schedule.

Resources were not available in any other language besides English. We have a huge population of new comers to both school districts.  We had to translate the resources before using them. The resources were only in PDF form, including  the student presentation, which made translating and editing resources difficult.  A conversion software was used to convert the pdf of the student presentation and worksheets to an editable form. 

Another challenge is the time involved actually printing the designs with the 3D printer. Prints can take hours to print, especially for a large class. This doesn't include having to check all of the designs before they can be printed.