If you fancy getting into 3D printing we have one you can borrow.  Please let us know if you’d like to have a go. We’ll bring it out to you and get you started on a project or two with your children then leave it with you. 3D printing is still in its infancy in schools, especially in primary schools but there is a big “wow” factor and a growing range of apps and software that is user friendly for children. The “wow” factor is good too!

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What might you do if you borrow it?

We’ll bring the printer out for you, get it set-up and start you off on a project. Here are some ideas you might like to think about to make the experience as relevant as possible for you and your children.

Use Blokify to design, build and print (link to Maths.)

Blokify is an app (iPad or Android) that allows children to design castles, space stations, city buildings, pirate ships and Egyptian pyramids. Once created they email them to the computer running the printer where you can print them. The app (£2.99) feels very much like a simplified version of Minecraft and the children will instantly spot that.

We could make the challenge more difficult (and at the same time reinforce mathematical conceps relating to space, volume, area etc) by imposing conditions (such as maximum number of blocks, size of floor area or even volume of finished product.

REQUIRES:

• email accounts on the pupil iPads for the children to send their print file to the computer running the printer.
• The Blokify app to be installed on the pupil iPads

Use ThinkMaker app to design creatures or jewellery (link to English and Science)

Thingmaker allows children to assemble (on screen) a range of different creatures (like those pictured above from Bosbury CE Primary School) or to create their own jewelery. The app allows them to colour and and texture to their creations to place them in a setting and to pose them.

Printing takes a long time (the models are quite large) and you won’t want to print them all and a good way to deal with this is to run a class competition. Get your children to produce a piece of writing about how the creature evolved and what the various body parts are for etc. Then print the best three (a great hook for writing)

REQUIRES:

• The free Thingmaker app installed on the pupil iPads

Use Blokify or 123D Design to create a Sol LeWitt sculpture (link to art)

I’m grateful to some inspiration I gained from a display at Ashfield Park for this one.

Sol LeWitt was 20th Century American artist. A class display like this one could be made using simple functionality in a more advanced design package such as the app version of 123D Design. Children work from “primitive” 3D shapes, modifying and combining them to make their own elements to add to the class sculpture.

REQUIRES:

• The free 123D Design app installed on the pupil iPads
• and / or Blokify app

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Here’s a list of iPad apps that will provide you with an easy route into printing with primary children. iPad apps for 3D printing

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To view the full manual for our UP Plus 2 printer use this link

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