No 3D Printer? No Problem!

So you’re interested in doing 3D design with your students, but you don’t have a 3D printer? Do not let that hold you back! You can do so much without ever using a printer.

Maybe you’re in the process of picking out a printer, but it hasn’t arrived yet, or perhaps you’re not sure if you want to make the financial commitment to a 3D printer until you see how it works in your classroom, or maybe it’s just not feasible for you to have a printer at all. There are plenty of engaging and educational ways to implement 3D design without actually printing.

If you’re going to work on 3D design only (not printing), I like to highlight some of the unique things that students can focus on. These are things that we usually ignore or spend less time on because they’re not practical for our printers, for example:

• Use of multiple colors

• Focus on interior spaces of a design

• Creation of patterns and details

Here are a few ideas that focus on design over printing that we’ve had lots of success with:

Character Creation: Have students create a 3D character. They can copy one they know (we had so may pikachus in my class!) or they can create their own character. I like to show videos and examples of Pixar-style animation, so students can really get a feel for the types of details that make a character come to life.

Habitat/Landscape Creation: Creating outdoor spaces with an eye toward world-building or habitat creation is something that so may students get excited about. They love the idea of creating a fictional city block, an ideal panda habitat, or a magical terrain for aliens (all actual things that I’ve seen students make). Depending on your goals you can focus on curriculum connections like what living creatures need to survive, or what elements of a setting are important to the plot. There are so many amazing classroom connections with this type of design.

Home/Object Design using Scale: If you’re looking for something with more of a math focus, one type of project that my students loved was 3D design working with scale. Students can use Google Maps to get exterior shots of their home or other building of interest and recreate them using different scales. Or students can take an existing space (say your classroom) and using precise measurements they can create a 3D model of it to redesign it. I also like to do 3D design “still life” art, where students can look at array of objects and recreate on their computers.

With the correct introduction, you’ll get students just as excited about designing as they are about printing!

We’d love to hear if you end up using any of these ideas!