The Education Tool that Every Homeschool Family, Remote Learning Group, and Micro-pod Needs Now!

School, or really learning, looks different for just about everyone these days. Whether you are homeschooling your children, supporting distance learning from your local school district, or managing a learning group of multiple students, educational tools that meet the needs of all kids, regardless of age, grade level, language, and other unique learning needs, are hard to come by. Having an education-focused product that can keep kids engaged, that doesn’t take up too much space, and that is affordable is a must for all the unique, home-based school structures that exist right now. With multiple kids on various schedules, there will definitely be times that one or more of them need to be engaged independently, bonus points if it is without a screen. 

That’s why we were thrilled to hear that so many learning pods, and virtual learning families have embraced 3DuxDesign products and programs; they are used alongside students’ curriculum to provide a screen-free, creative, and educational outlet. With simple and intuitive materials, children can utilize the architecture sets independently or team up with partners, and parents can access lesson prompts, download standards-based lesson plans, and interact with the global community of parents and educators to support student collaboration in an innovative design lab setting. 

Getting Started with Architecture Kits

3DuxDesign Architecture Sets  get all kids thinking creatively and outside the box. Through simplistic cardboard shapes, colorful connector pieces, and common art supplies found at home, students will spend hours designing and building fire stations, libraries, houses, community centers, and more! The options are limitless and the opportunity grows alongside students. By adding features like electricity and encouraging a problem-based learning model, students move from open-ended creative play to using engineering, geometry and team-building skills to solve real-world problems with solutions that can thrive in local or even global communities.

Architecture sets go beyond normal building blocks, magnet tiles, Legos, and other building “toys” that many of us are accustomed to. The ease of use and affordability allow kids to create anything they imagine being that they are not limited when pieces run out. Many creations start with a 3DuxDesign kit and transform into something beyond our wildest imaginations using found objects at home, recycled boxes in the garage, and common scraps of paper and packaging. The approachable play-based design elements allow kids to harness creativity beyond the limits of traditional building block sets and kits. 

Feedback From Educators and Families

Katie Stoddard, a mom and certified teacher in Colorado shared, “My kids love Legos and Magna Tiles, but pieces get used quickly and sets are pricey, meaning that once they’ve ‘used up’ what we have here at home, they are limited to build anything else. This limits their creativity to tall, skinny towers and traditional structures like castles and houses. With 3DuxDesign’s architecture sets, they build everything from farms to grocery stores to obstacle courses, and if they run out of pieces, they make more. They use art supplies to enhance the look of the design and their creativity comes to life.”

Lisa Kelly, a former early childhood educator in Illinois and past president of her school’s PTA, provided a summer intensive learning pod for her two children and three others, ranging in age from three to thirteen. Three students in the pod have special needs documented in IEPs with support needed for fine motor skills, speech development, and hearing impairment. When she introduced the architecture kits, the students collaborated in designing a town where each students was able to make contributions appropriate to his or her age and learning needs and where older students led by example and supported the learning of younger students, all while challenging their own innovation. 

Lesson Plans and Tools that Educators, Tutors, and Parents can Navigate

We get it—not everyone in an educator role right now is a trained teacher, and that can be intimidating. 3DuxDesign has worked with teachers and education experts across the globe to design standards-based lessons and numerous lesson prompts to help anyone navigate distance or home-based learning with efficacy. Knowing that these lessons are being used by educators and parents alike, and that you have a community of educators and families to lean on within the 3DuxDesign family, makes the idea of developing new content and introducing new ideas to students less challenging.  

Many people embrace the Tiny House Lesson as a good starting place. This lesson is easy to introduce, is a topic that most kids are excited about (who wouldn’t want to design their very own tiny house), and it is a project that uses fewer materials. Check it out here. While younger students gain mastery of basic shapes and 3D spatial thinking, older students can learn more complex geometry and financial literacy as they calculate the cost of materials used to build and decorate their house.

Embracing Global Community with The Global Futures Design Lab

Are your children lacking peer-to-peer socialization and need to collaborate with other kids, even from a distance? The Global Futures Design Lab from 3DuxDesign was created as a way for kids to connect with students from around the globe to solve real-world problems through a four-step process where they imagine, design, build, and publicly share their solutions. 

In a recent session, students from a high-need community in Bridgeport, Connecticut were challenged to rethink a part of the community that had fallen victim to industrial changes and lack of funding. Through this urban renewal project, students met with community leaders, industry experts, and each other to better understand and plan for the needs of the community. Similar projects have been completed with students in Kenya, Costa Rica, Thailand, and other cities.

While we all hope school returns to “normal,” sometime in the next few months, the reality is that learning may look different for a while. Engaging kids with new projects that let them explore STEM-based concepts, design thinking, creativity, student voice, and collaboration sounds like a good idea—pandemic or not!

for more information about 3DuxDesign products and learning programs, visit www.3duxdesign.com

Lesson Plans and Tools that Educators, Tutors, and Parents can Navigate

We get it—not everyone in an educator role right now is a trained teacher, and that can be intimidating. 3DuxDesign has worked with teachers and education experts across the globe to design standards-based lessons and numerous lesson prompts to help anyone navigate distance or home-based learning with efficacy. Knowing that these lessons are being used by educators and parents alike, and that you have a community of educators and families to lean on within the 3DuxDesign family, makes the idea of developing new content and introducing new ideas to students less challenging.  

Many people embrace the Tiny House Lesson as a good starting place. This lesson is easy to introduce, is a topic that most kids are excited about (who wouldn’t want to design their very own tiny house), and it is a project that uses fewer materials. Check it out here. While younger students gain mastery of basic shapes and 3D spatial thinking, older students can learn more complex geometry and financial literacy as they calculate the cost of materials used to build and decorate their house.

Embracing Global Community with The Global Futures Design Lab

Are your children lacking peer-to-peer socialization and need to collaborate with other kids, even from a distance? The Global Futures Design Lab from 3DuxDesign was created as a way for kids to connect with students from around the globe to solve real-world problems through a four-step process where they imagine, design, build, and publicly share their solutions. 

In a recent session, students from a high-need community in Bridgeport, Connecticut were challenged to rethink a part of the community that had fallen victim to industrial changes and lack of funding. Through this urban renewal project, students met with community leaders, industry experts, and each other to better understand and plan for the needs of the community. Similar projects have been completed with students in Kenya, Costa Rica, Thailand, and other cities.

While we all hope school returns to “normal,” sometime in the next few months, the reality is that learning may look different for a while. Engaging kids with new projects that let them explore STEM-based concepts, design thinking, creativity, student voice, and collaboration sounds like a good idea—pandemic or not!