By Martin Horejsi
In education, there are unlimited applications for 3-D printing across curricula. For example, want to study cells? All the organelles of the cell could be printed in scale with each other, and the 3-D cell could be studied with greater intimacy than through the eyepiece of a microscope. Students also could handle the part of the cell they just created.
This is just one of many practical examples, but talking about 3-D printing, to borrow half a quote, is like dancing about architecture. The vocabulary mimics dime-store science fiction tomes, while the implications can strain dystopian robotic themes.
But in reality, 3-D printing is little more than an additive creation process where a computer-based three-dimensional object is “printed” using layered and sequential deposition of material resulting in physical model. You could think of printing a picture as 2-D printing where material is deposited on paper in height and width. Adding the third dimension of depth requires successive passes of printing, one on top of the other, successively building the object.
Most of us are already familiar with the subtractive creation of objects, whether by Michelangelo’s hammer and chisel, or the grinding, drilling, and sawing of popular manufacturing techniques. Instead, 3-D printing is an additive creation process, much like cake decorating, where material is added rather than taken away.
Three-dimensional printing is quite easy, which is surprising to some, given its Star Trekkean nature. How easy, you ask? Well, with the right equipment, you can put an existing object on something called a digitizer that essentially captures images of it from 360 degrees around it. Then the imagery is sent to the 3-D printer, where, depending on the complexity of the object and the speed of the printer, minutes or hours later a replica of the object will be sitting quietly on the 3-D printer’s stage, as if it had been beamed up from some distant planet.
Reading The Odyssey in class? Why not design a board game? Print a game board image of the journey’s locales from the Google [Earth] Lit Trip for the epic adventure. Then, through study and discussion, students can design board pieces of Odysseus, Penelope, the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus, the Cyclops (complete with wooden stake), Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, the Sirens … you get the idea. Talk about printing your way to understanding! Print a pair of dice, and send Odysseus on his way.
Some interesting logical twists occur when thinking about 3-D printing. If you had one printer, could you print another printer? The answer right now is almost. And taking thought a little further, could one 3-D printer take the place of a whole room full of spare parts? That answer is very close to yes, to the point that NASA is going to fly a 3-D printer to the International Space Station for just that purpose. Imagine needing a replacement part for something, and ground control just sends up the software file for the spare part, which is then printed in space. Here is some background on the project, as described by Niki Werkheiser, the 3-D Print project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Back on earth, once teachers have access to easy and reliable 3-D printing, it will fundamentally change the options available in the classroom. Beyond obvious things like models, manipulatives, and replacement parts, the students will be able to design and print in three dimensions their own creations.
This printing is not limited to hardware. Another application for 3-D printing takes a page from Captain Picard’s playbook in the form of printing food. Yes, food. Imagine an inkjet printer literally spraying successive layers of food, dust, and water. Dinner would materialize right before your eyes. Well, someday maybe.
At the moment, 3-D printing in education is still in the novelty phase, with the most excitement about it in physical science and engineering classes. But hot on their trail are art, math, and biology. It’s not hard to imagine a school where 3-D printing is ubiquitous, and the process of education is forever changed.
Hard to imagine? Think of these two dates: 1959 and 1995. The former date is the birthday of the photocopier, while the latter date is when widespread Internet access entered schools. Today you can hardly imagine a school without either.
Someday we will look back at 2014 as when our education paradigm changed yet again. But of course there are still some teachers out there who are holding out for 4-D printing, and I’m one of them. With 4-D printing I could print myself some more time. But unfortunately Einstein had some doubts about it, so don’t hold your breath on that one.
Dr. Martin Horejsi is associate professor of Instructional Technology and Science Education in the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Montana, Missoula. He was previously a middle and high school science teacher, and his areas of specialty include mobile technologies, collaborative applications, digital creative expression, standard and nonstandard digital assessments, wireless data collection, hybrid and blended learning environments, and innovative classroom uses of consumer technologies. Dr. Horejsi is a board member of the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE), writes a column and blogs for the National Science Teachers Association called Science 2.0, and has been blogging about meteorites and space science since 2002 in his Meteorite-Times.com column titled “The Accretion Desk.”
