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Background information - Recap of 3Ducation project

Last updated: 8/7/2014

As I’ve mentioned in the introduction this project is the sequel to the project 3Ducation. Because a lot of the research that has been done there is at the basis of this project I will first give a short recap of that research as far as it is relevant to this project. For the full report please look at www.3Ducation.nl

At the start of the project we did some literature research to learn more about 3D-printing. What has already been done and tried and what possibilities were open to explore. Most of the work that is done already in this field has been done in America. One of the most inspiring experiments here, that I also use as a major inspiration for this project, is the example of the printed hand. A 12 year old boy was born without a hand, only with a wrist. He needed a prosthetic hand but that was really expensive. His dad came up with the idea to look at the possibilities that 3D-printing could offer this young boy. Together with the science teacher from the boy and his class of students they decided to help. It came a very interesting research project and it the end they managed to create something that did not really look like a hand as a prosthetic hand would do, but it had the functionality it needed.

            This is an example of how you can solve problems by inventing progressive solutions by the use of 3D-printing techniques. It is also showing that it is important to work together with different specialists with their own expertise to be able to look at all the aspects of a problem and solution. This is not the only example where 3D-printing was used to solve a problem in a very easy and sometimes unexpected way. A great benefit of 3D-printing is that it is low cost (besides the purchase) and very accessible.

We also did a field research which means we talked to people related to the field of education. First we went to IB (International Baccalaureate) where we talked to somebody that made us aware that there was a large interest in 3D-printing for educational purposes, but that the school did not know yet what to do with the 3D-printers. This really became our mission, we wanted to fill in this cap.

            Our next visit was with two teachers from a primary school in Haarlem. They use a 3D-printer at their school but they also did not manage to find a really educational purpose. They use it to print our objects around themes they work with in their classes, for example farm animals. But these things can also be bought in stores so the need for a 3D-printer for these kind of objects is not really big. They also told us that they were looking for a good, child friendly, program for designing 3D-models. In the future they want the children to design models that they can print.

            We also went to the 3D-print canal house in Amsterdam. DUS architects has started a project to print a house. This research project will take 3 years and they really want to take time to look at all the aspects and all the details and problems that they face on their building process. This is also an example of how to deal with problems, analyse them and 3D-model and print a solution, test it and refine it. I also think that this project could maybe be useful for Creat3D, maybe they face small problems that I can use as suggestions for problems to solve by students.

            The last meeting I had for 3Ducation was with ICT in de Wolken. This is the project that I will collaborate with to implement the study programme Creat3D when it is finished. They have already done some projects with 3D-printers, one project was to build an Ultimaker and another project was about designing and printing an object. I learned there that it is also very important to have somebody that has technical knowledge around when you are working with a 3D-printer. They are sometimes still not working very well or a part might get broken and you have to replace it yourself. Without some technical knowledge this might not be so easy to deal with.

After the literature and field research we created some possible ideas that could be worked out more in detail later. the first idea was to print an object and make a virtual environment around it. The goal of this idea was to make a report in a new and virtual way, around the object.

            The second idea was to let a group of children make a chain reaction, where every child is responsible for one chain in the reaction. This idea has as goal to improve the group feeling and learn children something about working in groups. They are all responsible for their own part as well as the whole reaction. Another idea that is related to this idea is the idea of working together to create something bigger, like a skeleton or a machine. Every student creates one of the parts of the big object and writes some information about it by using Layar-technique.

            The third idea was to print objects in stages, to be able to give insight in processes or building structures. This could be combined with subject like history in a way were you show the development a building went through in history. An idea that is related to this idea is the use of 3D-printing in combination with creative storytelling. Where printed objects let the story come alive. Another related idea is the general idea of using the 3D-printer to make abstract concepts more visible and touchable by 3D-printing. This is important for subjects like mathematics and science where aspects are often very abstract.

            The last idea which is the inspiration for this project is the idea to make students invent something that solves a problem. By using 3D-modelling and printing it is easy to make a prototype and refine parts afterwards and print them again. This is not necessarily linked to an already existing subject but it could be linked to problems suggested in existing subjects.

However at the end of our report we also discussed some discussion points that should be kept in mind. One important point is the cost of the printers. A printer can be built by somebody for around €400, but it requires a certain level of technical knowledge. When you don’t have this you have to buy a more expensive one and still the problem remains that sometimes you will need to solve technical problems with the printer. This makes it still not accessible for everyone. Since 3D-printing is still a very new technique it is still developing. The printers are not completely stable yet and they are also not very precise. In the future this will develop, but at the moment we have to deal with the imperfections of the printers and the sometimes long printing times.

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