Help Me Capture My Students' Imaginations With a 3D Printer!
My students need to be encouraged to pursue careers in STEM. Researchers say elementary school is the place to do it! A 3D printer would DEFINITELY help inspire them!
What could *POSSIBLY* be more wonder-inducing than a device that prints a 3D object BEFORE A CHILD'S VERY EYES? Seriously! My classroom is all about WONDER and POSSIBILITY and a 3D printer would be an AMAZING addition to our already INCREDIBLE, student-centered learning space!
My school serves 500+ students in grades K-4 and I see each and every one of them.
We are a small town (3.5 sq. miles, 8,600 people) but we are very close-knit and our families come from all walks of life / economic backgrounds. Our kids are inquisitive, enthusiastic, kind, caring, friendly and always willing to help each other out. They never cease to amaze me!
My Project
A 3D printer in our classroom would give us NEARLY UNLIMITED potential to explore and create things that can inspire wonder and creativity in a range of cross-curricular projects. Using free web-based tools like Tinkercad, our students could APPLY the Engineering Design Process (which we teach as part of our STEM curriculum) and actually MAKE objects their creative little minds dream up. We teach the kids that "technology" is anything made by a human being that solves a problem. What problems might our kids solve if given the opportunity? That is what I see is at stake with this project. If they can dream it, and they can design it, they can watch if be BUILT BEFORE THEIR EYES! How impossibly cool would that be?
We need to ensure kids' interest in STEM careers is stoked in elementary school and carries through to middle school and high school and beyond.
Adding a 3D printer to my classroom will GREATLY facilitate that mission! We already have the coolest classroom in the school (sorry, hate to brag, but it's really true!) If our Middle School also gets a 3D printer too, the opportunities for usage in lessons will go WELL BEYOND just what happens in my K4STEMLAB!
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