Learning never stops, and pioneer Christopher Sweeney recounts his 3D printing teaching adventures from last summer.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to teach 3D printing at three different locations in the Philadelphia tri-state area and join local makerspaces.
I had young students, teachers, and graduate students in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Although these were just some of my projects this summer, they were very rewarding and a great learning experience.
For me, the tested printers and the courses I offered helped different people develop their skills, and at the same time, it excited me to see people's creations.
My first stop was at Bucks County Community School, where I taught a course called "Kids on Campus." In this course, students could create music, rockets, robots, and many more amazing adventures.
I started a Makers Slam course, focusing on 3D printing, while also working on MakeyMakeys, Chibitronics, and drawing on conductive paper with conductive pens. My campers had the opportunity to use software and several Ultimakers to create high-quality prints. They also learned how to use Tinkercad and Morphi, including all of Morphi's drawing options. They also had the opportunity to use some special filaments like Colorfabbs Woodfill.
Campers had ample time to learn 3D printing.
The second adventure was completely different. I worked with K-8 students, all of whom were graduate students and educators who wanted to learn more about 3D printing.
This 3D printing course was held at the Educators Professional Association of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. This course was also held during Art Week, which is a week-long celebration with guest speakers, field trips, and an exhibition of all student's final works. In this course, we focused on developing skills in creating models using TurtleArt, Morphi, Tinkercad, and Chimera, with the goal of enabling these educators to pass on what they learned to their students.
My students used the Structure SDK scanner to create their own models, TurtleArt and Morphi to make jewelry, and special filaments from ColorFabb and ProtoPasta for their designs. The post-processing results were amazing, and they worked hard with other students in this intensive week-long program to showcase everything they learned and created.
While teaching at the University of the Arts, I also had the opportunity to join Hacktory, a local makerspace in West Philadelphia. All my graduate students and in-service education students used Ultimakers, and I had the chance to use Hacktory's Ultimaker 2, which had new upgrades with a safety enclosure, from printing physical objects to completion.
Here, I could not only work on my personal 3D printing designs but also had the chance to try laser cutting, add other new elements, and complete a project I had been working on to provide simple circuits and Drawdio enclosures for my architecture and design students at Charter High School in September.
My last stop on my summer tour was at the Delaware Contemporary Art Center, where I was invited to participate in my Maker Slam and the local YMCA summer camp.
Here, we had the opportunity to use Tinkercad and some unique filaments to create personalized items, allowing participants to wear stylish clothes that they had created themselves, all using a 3D printer.
Campers also got to use Makey Makeys, Drawdios, and experiment with Ozobots, as did Education Director Jenn Pollilo. We used the Cooper Hewitt Design Challenge format for my own students at CHAD to create and design. This experience was very worthwhile and interesting, and Education Director Jenn Pollilo hopes we can continue to host Maker Slam in her art club next summer.
As I said, this summer was a lot of work and a great adventure. I hope to host the same sessions this year and bring more exciting 3D printing projects to summer students.
Original source: https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52491-last-summers-3d-printing-adventures