STEM Learning Opportunities: 3D Printing and Modeling Challenges Event on LinkedIn

What is changing in the market?

Experts are saying the slow adoption of 3D printing is mostly caused by the knowledge and skills gap. It's a fairly new technology and we're finding that many professionals are lacking those skills and they don't have the knowledge to make the most of the technology. Companies are wanting to have more speed and accuracy and they want to utilize rapid prototyping.

Lots of organizations are wanting to bring 3D printing in house. They want a bigger focus on designing and being able to print spare parts. They are using 3D printing for hybrid manufacturing and the use of Digital twins.

Market Trends

I just briefly want to go over some of the market trends that we're seeing. So in 2023 it was estimated to reach 20.37 billion in 2030. It's projected to reach even more at 88.28 billion. And that is a compound annual growth rate of over 23%.

We know the market is growing and we know that the trend is that this new technology is bringing quite a few new manufacturing issues, especially when it comes to design.

For many engineers entering the field of manufacturing. For example, 3D printing was not a focus in their education. We can also talk about other industries and companies who are wanting to convert their digital assets from two D to 3D for obvious reasons.

Many of those professionals in regards to 3D modeling need to create digital assets for virtual reality and graphic design, digital communications, fashion, real estate education, interior design, and even health care.

This has created a demand as 3D printing and modeling becomes more established skills and training will be further integrated into all levels of education.

Early Exposure is Key

Another aspect worth highlighting is that students who want a high tech career are strongly influenced by their classroom experiences.

57% of boys and 68% of girls who have chosen a high tech career say they were inspired by one person, one event or one class during middle school or high school.

The knowledge and skills gap becomes more apparent in the context of stem education because there still is a need to integrate 3D design and 3D modeling and our learning programs. It seems obvious to me that the early exposure is key.

Challenges You May Face

Now let's talk about some of the challenges you might be facing or thinking about. Now, the students need to switch between various 3D modeling and 3D printing apps as their skills advance from elementary and students move from middle school to high school, teachers need to create their curriculum from scratch. Causing frustration.

Whenever a switch or transition to new software is required?districts need to purchase new software and new curriculum while they on board, teachers and students and set up systems from scratch for each skill level, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The tech that students learn within the classroom isn't necessarily what they're using in the workplace.

So how do we bridge the gap?

SelfCAD helps students acquire career ready skills. Today, I'm going to introduce you to the idea of 3D modeling and vertical alignment.

Vertical Alignment for Students

This is our solution to bridging the gap that we're discussing today as students progress through their education, it becomes increasingly important to equip them with the essential skills that will prepare them for future careers.

SelfCAD is a user friendly 3D modeling and design tool that is suitable for ages 10 and up. It offers a seamless transition from elementary school to middle school and high school with possible internships to help students build a portfolio, contact me for more information on specific alignment needs. Email me directly at [email protected]

Vertical alignment of our software looks like this. Once students begin using SelfCAD in elementary school, they can continue using the same software as they progress to middle school and then throughout their high school years.

So how do we introduce 3D modeling and printing to students?

Here are some exciting opportunities to enhance your existing program at our curriculum and incorporate some 3D design and what you already are doing. First of all, the easiest way to incorporate CAD is through stations and rotations for elementary students.

Since teachers are already doing this, they can set up a couple of computers in their rotation, set up the interactive tutorials which walks the students through step by step and they have the opportunity to create something from scratch and they have this sense of accomplishment.

Some of these designs only require about 20 minutes and it's, it's a great opportunity for them to learn some 3D design.

Other opportunities are to enrich your after school programs as well as summer camps maker, Space Stem Night. Why not do a mini challenge?

You have two examples from our curriculum here. Just a few examples of what you can do in your curriculum.

We have two students working together. One student makes something in real life. The other student translates that design into 3D modeling. The first example here is Playdoh. The second example is a wooden block castle.

Secondary Students

Now we're going to move on to curriculum for our secondary students. And I've listed a few ways that you can implement the curriculum for these students. Either self paced curriculum, teacher led curriculum, project based learning. You can incorporate it in many of your CTE courses that you already have. There's some overlap, you can use it for electives night. Why don't you showcase it for electives nights?

See how your students respond, see what the interest is and then go from there. So I also want to mention again that the demand for skilled CAD professionals has reached an all time high.

And thanks to the rapid expansion of 3D modeling across various industries, we need to consider that and we need to think about what industries and what pathways we're offering for our students and we need to meet that demand and this is one of the ways we do it.

Teach Modeling Skills in Existing Programs

Here are a couple of the CTE courses that really could focus more on 3D modeling, 3D, printing and CAD. And those domains are college and career exploration, architecture, and construction, digital arts, A/V communications, digital communications. And of course, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Let's dive even deeper and think about even more of the benefits for 3D design and how it supports student learning. We know that 3D visuals are important for special populations, visualization for core concepts and introducing 3D modeling to teachers in core subjects can reinforce foundational concepts.

For example, the science models that I have for you, they would normally be a craft that a student or teacher would have to go buy materials for and they would build, these could be replaced with the 3d lessons that we've already created for you. And by implementing these 3D projects, we can introduce students to the world of stem across multiple subject areas.

I really didn't want anybody to leave here today without at least hearing about our cross curricular lessons.

Here we have a lot of biology models and you know, there are other models that we have created and we're adding new ones all the time. I'm really proud to say that we are growing and expanding our interactive tutorials to be used by educators. This is just a taste of some of the 3D models that can be created in selfCAD by students and also 3D printed.

Geometry in Real Life

Welcome to Geometry in real life. Math teachers. I think you're gonna love this. We have found a way to teach math concepts using 3D design. Teaching geometry without visuals can be difficult. Here we have a three dimensional shape with four faces, six edges and four vertices.

It's called a tetrahedron. It is a three dimensional shape with four triangular faces. We also have a spiral of Theodorus, also referred to as the square root spiral and or the Pythagorean spiral. It's constructed with a continuous right angle.

Just to give you an idea of what's in unit three and you know, it's there's a lot there. But for math concepts, we're talking about area and geometry.

How do you measure volume and maybe some related topics you'd be interested in is spatial reasoning and how do you practice visualization skills?

There are so many features of the curriculum. It's project based. It's cross curricular. We have various capstone projects and we have many challenges as well as 3D printing and it also teaches design concepts and the right way to teach 3D modeling, all of this can be applied to many careers in many industries.

All-In-One Solution for Districts

So, if you are at the district level, I feel really strongly that this could be an all in one solution for you. Not only is it for early exposure and vertical alignment, but it's also scalable so that it can be teacher led or self pace with little or no planning.

A special thanks to Pathful Inc. and LinkedIn for allowing us the platform to educate and expand our reach. Click below to view the video presenation.