Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
The kids were riveted.
Some second-graders bobbed their heads in rhythm to the moving print
head. Others hummed along as the printer's motor changed pitch. Finally, after
a few minutes, a mini playdough space shuttle emerged and was plucked out
of its print-bed and held aloft so students could take a closer look.
The reverent silence dissipated as students jockeyed for position with their
hands raised. One second-grader asked whether we could change the wing
shape and print the space shuttle again. Another student asked whether we
had brought more playdough in different colors, to print more shuttles. A third
student, grasping a can of playdough pulled from classroom shelves, offered
a rough estimation of how many space shuttles he could print from a single
can. Another student of an entrepreneurial bent calculated how much proit
she could make if she sold each space shuttle for $5 and bought raw playdough
at current market rates.
In the words of Dave White, a design and technology teacher at the Clevedon
School in the United Kingdom, “If you can capture students' imagination, you
can capture their attention.”
Make to learn: Children's engineering
Imagine that you're a fourth grade teacher. You are wondering whether design
software and 3D printing can help you teach students basic physics and math.
You know you need to impart some core concepts, such as the notion of kinetic
energy and some simple mathematical ratios. True, you can teach all of this
from a number of tried and true basic math and science lesson plans. But you'd
like to try something different, just to see what happens.
Most of us don't realize that what's taught in public schools is the work of a
thousand pairs of invisible hands. An elementary school teacher does not just
dream up lesson plans that she thinks her students will like. Instead, at least in
the United States and many Western countries, classroom curriculum is a liv-
ing, breathing microcosm of the larger world outside the walls of the schools.
States create education standards. A blend of experts and commercial pub-
lishers create some of the curriculum. And parents, administrators and school
boards have the inal say in what's good education. If you're the teacher, where
do you begin?
