Exploring 3D Printing for Schools

Posted on by Dave GN

So over the break, I did some playing and learning about 3D printers. There are two aspects to them really – the software you use and the printer hardware itself. This is a summary of my notes, thoughts and current understanding of the things.

Software
Software is actually easy. There are 2 parts to the software; Design Software and Control Software. There is basically 3 parts to 3D printing something;

  1. Design it
  2. Slice it – this is the process of taking your 3D object and cutting it into the layers that will be printed. Some software to control the printer will do this, sometimes it is done in the design software. Almost all printers use the same file type for output to actually print from. It’s called G-code. Simply put you have software, that renders whatever you want into this code, which is then used by the printer. Almost ever printer will read gcode.
  3. Control your printer

 

Design Software

This is what you draw/model in.

Great place to start is TinkerCAD. – free and online

https://www.tinkercad.com/

after that, there are lots and lots of options.

  • Blender – free
  • Fusion 360 (autodesk) – free for schools * one I am learning at the moment.
  • Sketchup
  • Archicad (free for teachers. not sure for students)
  • OpenSCAD
  • Sculptris
  • netFabb

 

Control Software

This is the software that configures the settings of your printer. Most printers are configure in the file you save – they are not directly controlled live by the computer, unless you want to set it up that way.

Cura – this is the most popular control software out there, from what I understand. Open source and free.

https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software

Pronterface – another very popular one.

http://www.pronterface.com/

 

Hardware

There are lots of options out there, but the important thing I have learnt, is that most printers are created equal, at least below the $1000 mark. It seems to be all about the follwing things;

  1. resolution
  2. heating bed
  3. number and type of extruders
  4. Bed size

There are lots of options and lots of brands. From what I gather, almost everything is the same, when it comes down to the basic parts.

At this stage, I’m not going to get into specific discussion about specific brands; I want to be general at the moment.

In schools, we have 4 things to primarily consider with 3D printer Hardware;

  • Printer Cost
  • Printing Material Cost (filament)
  • Ease of Repair
  • Print Time

Costs – let face it, we are schools. We have limited funds and want those funds to be spent wisely. A wiz bang printer that will print metal or use a liquid resin medium, would be very cool, but in all honesty, students would most likely never end up using it for anything.

You want to be able to use generic generic parts. You want to be able to repair it yourself and do it quickly; the thing will break. But a few weeks at a repair shop (even under warranty) will destroy a unit of work that is using it.

You want to be able to use generic filament. Some models use special spools and special filament. I recommend looking for one that uses 1.75mm filament, as it is the easiest to buy.

You only need to be print in basic materials – ABS, PLA, PVA. Everything else is a bonus, and quite possibly will never be used, at least by students, as the cost can be prohibative.

See http://3dprintingfromscratch.com/common/3d-printer-filament-types-overview/  for a good guide to the different filament types. There are lots more than listed, but it is a great start to them.

You also want to ensure that your printer will support (physically) the filament roll size you buy; as a 1KG roll will not work on a printer that only supports 500g.

Print Time – this is basically about how long things take to print. A general rule, is that it will potentially take a few hours. The videos you see of things printing, are almost always sped up. 3D printing takes time. There are two ways to speed up printing – lower the print resolution or use multiple extruders.

One advantage of multiple extruders, if they are independent of each other, is that you can print multiple projects at the same time on some models.

* good place to note, read the specs carefully – there are printers that have multiple extruders (dual extruders) and printers that print with multiple materials (sometimes called dual material) printers. They are not the same thing!

 

 

My Meandering Thoughts on Curriculum for Digital Technologies 2018 – Part 1

Posted on by Dave GN

As 2017 begins to wind up, I am begin to plan 2018. I am looking forward to 2018, I have a new curriculum project; Year 8 IT under the Victorian Curriculum. This just seems completely and utterly ordinary, until you take into the consideration that this course is for a group of year 8 that spent half of last year learning to coding.  I know, I know…………. Still not really something to be excited about. But I am!

The 2018 Year 8s will be the first cohort of students I have worked with that already have done a significant amount of coding and are not necessarily starting at a zero knowledge starting point. The downside, is I am writing an entirely new course from the ground up, but that is not new to me. I have energy around this piece of curriculum development.

As an aside, I also am reworking my year 9 Game Development Course, my Year 10 Visualisation and Web Design course, and my Year 10 Software Development Course, but these are more tweaks and will retain much of their cores.

But at the moment,  I am thinking about Year 8 and playing with a few ideas !

I am lucky enough to be at a school who is a member of the catchment for the first Victorian Tech School Centre to open, taking my classes to complete many design challenges over at YRTS (Yarra Ranges Tech School). I have been involved in the development of their programs and have worked closely with their team from a teaching and learning perspective. I’m a member of their Educational Consultation Committee. The programs they are running and developing are great, and have influenced my perspective on how we can engage students in Computing.

In the past week, I have revisited the aims of the Digital Technologies Victorian Curriculum

The Digital Technologies curriculum aims to ensure that students can:

  • design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs
  • use computational thinking and the key concepts of abstraction; data collection, representation and interpretation; specification, algorithms and development to create digital solutions
  • apply systems thinking to monitor, analyse, predict and shape the interactions within and between information systems and the impact of these systems on individuals, societies, economies and environments
  • confidently use digital systems to efficiently and effectively automate the transformation of data into information and to creatively communicate ideas in a range of settings
  • apply protocols and legal practices that support safe, ethical and respectful communications and collaboration with known and unknown audiences.

 

This revisit adjusted my perspective and thinking it seems. New terms become more prominent; my interpretations have been tweaked or changed. I think I have been too focused on the technical aspects from the scope and sequence, and not enough on the aims.

This adjustment has changed the contextual curriculum focus. To me, Digital Technologies is no longer just a technical subject, but a subject that is about application of the technical in order to do something tangible with it. I know that sounds like the same thing, but it really is not, at least in the meandering thought process that I am currently exploring. I will attempt to explain.

 

Digital Technology needs to be about designing solutions to problems; taking the technical tools of coding and applying them to a problem to create a solution. It’s about creating digital solutions while at the same time expanding a student digital tool box to allow them to develop their solutions. It’s the old chicken vs egg argument; which came first? We need to develop skills to solve problems by looking at the problems that need skills for solutions. We need to both develop the solution and learn the tools needed at the same time.

My thinking so far has taken me down the road into the realm of incorporating a range of robots into the year 8 course. Consumer lever robots, like the sphero, mbot or ringo2, allow you to access coding at a level that is very basic, but can be extended to a very complex level, while the whole way providing a platform that has tangible results at regular intervals. I’m thinking of making the course (or at least a part of it) a team challenge exercise – they have to research and design a solution to the challenge.

I think robots, can potentially provide the platform that bridges the digital to physical classroom gap. It can take coding to a place where it becomes “real” in a way that is difficult to achieve.

I shall have to think, and write more on this at it develops. What out for Part 2 and beyond!