Learning never stops, and pioneer Christopher Sweeney recounts his 3D printing teaching adventures last summer.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to teach 3D printing at three different locations in the Tri-State area of Philadelphia and join a local makerspace.
I worked with young students, teachers, and graduate students in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Although these were just my summer jobs, they were incredibly rewarding and a great learning experience.
For me, the tested printers and the courses I offered here helped different people develop their skills, while also exciting me to see people's creations.
My first stop was teaching a course called "Kids on Campus" at Bucks County Community School, where students could create with music, make rocket ships,
robots, and embark on many more amazing adventures.
I started a Makers Slam course, focusing on 3D printing, while also working on projects with MakeyMakeys, Chibitronics, and using conductive pens to draw on conductive paper.
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 chance to use some special filaments like Colorfabbs Woodfill.
The campers had plenty of time to learn 3D printing.
The second adventure was quite different; I worked with K-8 students, as well as graduate students and educators who wanted to learn more about 3D printing.
This 3D printing course was held at the Professional Association of Educators at the Philadelphia College of Art, and it also took place during Art Week, a week-long celebration featuring guest speakers, field trips, and an exhibition of all students' 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 teach what they learned to their own students.
My students used the Structure SDK scanner to build their own models, created jewelry using TurtleArt and Morphi, and designed with exotic filaments from ColorFabb and ProtoPasta. The post-processing results were amazing, and they worked hard with other students in this intense week-long program to showcase everything they learned and created.
While teaching at the art university, 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 a brand-new upgrade with a safety enclosure, from printing the physical object to completion.
Here, I could not only work on my personal 3D printing design projects but also had the opportunity to experiment with laser cutting, incorporate other new elements, and complete a project I had been working on: simple circuits and Drawdio enclosures for my architecture and design students at Charter High School in September.
My last stop on the summer tour was at the Delaware Contemporary Arts Center, where I was invited to participate in my Makers Slam and the local YMCA summer camp.
Here, we had the opportunity to use Tinkercad and some exotic filaments to create personal items, allowing participants to wear their own fashionable creations, continuously using 3D printers.
Campers also had access to Makey Makeys, Drawdios, and experimented with Ozobots, as did Education Director Jenn Pollilo.
We used the Cooper Hewitt Design Challenge format to have my own students at CHAD create and design. This experience was very rewarding and interesting, and Education Director Jenn Pollilo hopes we can continue to host the Makers Slam at her art club next summer.
As I said, this summer involved a lot of work and was a great adventure. I hope to hold similar 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