Identify Desired Results
The big idea I will explore this upcoming school year is enhancing student learning through 3D printing. I believe that 3D printing is the window into the future of education, in addition to Smartboards, tablets/IPads and Chromebooks. These tools are utilized to expand on student learning in visual and tactile ways. Smartboards allow students to interact with the lesson. Tablets/Ipads and Chromebooks provide students with the modality to explore the content digitally and connect to sources outside of the classroom.
3D printing is another tool to make content more tangible. I want 3D printing to aid students in diving deeper into their math and science content and to focus on making interdisciplinary connections and real world connections. With the New Generation Science Standards, middle school students will continue to uncover concepts and explain “phenomena central to the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space science” that they learned in previous grades which is using Gardner’s and Mansilla’s approach to disciplinary thinking where it is important to study few concepts in order to spend the time studying them more deeply. The students can use the 3D printer to create and manipulate objects that are bi-products of what they are investigating in science.
Another important concept from Gardner and Mansilla is that it is important to approach topics in various ways to allow students to make more connections. 3D printing will also allow students to approach science and math with a new outlook. Students will be encouraged to visually manipulate graphing and scaling concepts with 3D printing software, where before it was generally paper and pencil method. The students will be able to connect these math concepts across other disciplines such as science.
3D printing is a vital tool to further enhance topics the students are learning about. The students will be able to dive deeper into content by taking the time to develop and design projects that demonstrate what they are learning. This also allows students to connect math and science and produce objects that make their learning tangible.
3D printing is another tool to make content more tangible. I want 3D printing to aid students in diving deeper into their math and science content and to focus on making interdisciplinary connections and real world connections. With the New Generation Science Standards, middle school students will continue to uncover concepts and explain “phenomena central to the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space science” that they learned in previous grades which is using Gardner’s and Mansilla’s approach to disciplinary thinking where it is important to study few concepts in order to spend the time studying them more deeply. The students can use the 3D printer to create and manipulate objects that are bi-products of what they are investigating in science.
Another important concept from Gardner and Mansilla is that it is important to approach topics in various ways to allow students to make more connections. 3D printing will also allow students to approach science and math with a new outlook. Students will be encouraged to visually manipulate graphing and scaling concepts with 3D printing software, where before it was generally paper and pencil method. The students will be able to connect these math concepts across other disciplines such as science.
3D printing is a vital tool to further enhance topics the students are learning about. The students will be able to dive deeper into content by taking the time to develop and design projects that demonstrate what they are learning. This also allows students to connect math and science and produce objects that make their learning tangible.
Determine Acceptable Evidence
Various forms of assessment will be implemented in order to gain an understanding of the impact 3D printing has in enhancing student learning. Students will conduct a survey on the first day of school to provide me with a better insight on what they know about 3D printing. The information obtained from the survey will help guide my instruction using 3D printing. As we uncover concepts in math and science, such as area, perimeter, scaling, adaptations and life cycles of animals, expansion of our solar system, students will design projects using 3D printing to demonstrate their understanding. Student friendly rubrics will be provided on the particular topics they are learning. The rubric will include content, the integration of the topics we are learning, the accuracy of the content, and the creativity of using 3D printing. Depending on the topics we are studying, group and individual projects will be assigned bi-weekly and monthly.
Students will also create their own personal blogs and websites to reflect on how they are using the 3D printer to enhance their learning. They will take pictures of their work and other classmates’ work as they create digital portfolios of what they are learning in class. The students will need to continuously update their blogs and website to reflect on what projects they are currently working on. They will need to ensure they they discuss how the design process and 3D printing is helping them understand the concept they are focusing on better. They will also need to discuss how their learning may be different without the use of 3D software and printing. I will use the students’ blogs and websites as ongoing assessments to better understand their learning and my direction in teaching. The blog will also provide me with a source to provide feedback. We will end the school year with another survey to determine if the students understand 3D printing more and how it is used in learning.
Students will also create their own personal blogs and websites to reflect on how they are using the 3D printer to enhance their learning. They will take pictures of their work and other classmates’ work as they create digital portfolios of what they are learning in class. The students will need to continuously update their blogs and website to reflect on what projects they are currently working on. They will need to ensure they they discuss how the design process and 3D printing is helping them understand the concept they are focusing on better. They will also need to discuss how their learning may be different without the use of 3D software and printing. I will use the students’ blogs and websites as ongoing assessments to better understand their learning and my direction in teaching. The blog will also provide me with a source to provide feedback. We will end the school year with another survey to determine if the students understand 3D printing more and how it is used in learning.
Plan Learning Experience and Instruction
I will be integrating the big idea of using 3D printing to enhance student learning in a 6th grade setting. I will have 2 block classes with 30 students each in a block period of two and a half hours for math and science. Both classes have a mix of learning abilities in reading skills and math skills. The majority of the students are bilingual in which Spanish is their native language. They are still in the developing stage of English acquisition. The second classroom that I will teach is a bilingual classroom. A language barrier is a very real and troubling challenge that I have experienced in communicating with the students and especially the parents since I do not speak Spanish. Another challenge is the drastic difference in learning abilities in the classroom. Students range from below 2nd grade reading level or math ability to 8th grade abilities. In regards to technology tools in the classroom, I will have two desktop computers, a printer, a Makerbot 3D printer, two 3Doodlers, and a classroom set of Android tablets. Although our school is considered a Technology Magnet school, administration is less concerned with technology integration as opposed to making gains on standardized tests. The balance of meeting their expectations and my personal goals will be a great challenge without their support. The big idea will be integrated in each class mainly during science as my school wants our math time spent unwrapping the math Common Core standards. During science students will expand their learning to other disciplines such as Math.
My goal in math is for the students to integrate various concepts as opposed to focusing on specific concepts in isolation when integrating 3D printing. For example, I want the students to create their dream house on the computer while paying attention to area, perimeter, and include particular rooms. They will need to use scale sizing as well when building their dream house. In science, the students will use 3D printing to test concepts. For example, the students will need to design an animal that will be suitable for a particular environment that they studied. The biggest challenge that I will have to overcome is differentiating instruction so that all of students will be able to participate and expand their learning since many of them lack basic math skills. Another challenge will be technology integration as the tablets that the students have are limited in what programs they can use. For 3D modeling, it is very difficult to manipulate objects on tablets and I will need to ensure that I setup times to take my students to the computer lab to use desktop computers. I need to plan accordingly to ensure the students will have sufficient computer lab block time so that their modeling time will not be interrupted. Another problem that I expect to arise is the actual 3D printing. I want to focus more on the modeling and designing in case all projects are not able to be printed out with the 3D printer.
With student blogs and personal websites, the students will be very involved with their own learning. This keeps the students invested in the classroom. They will keep a digital portfolio with pictures and blogs so that they can reflect daily on activities in and out of the classroom. This will help the students make real world connections and make connections with other disciplines as they are constantly recalling concepts. The use of 3D printing and design will produce tangible items that the students can share and further explore. Manipulations and hands-on tasks helps the students recall more as it targets other senses. The students will work on individual projects and on group projects. A large classroom project will be a service learning project where our classroom will connect with Enabling the Future. In this project, the classroom will research various ways 3D printing could help people with disabilities, specifically disabilities that require prosthetics. We will connect with a person that is in need of a prosthetic and through, Enabling the Future, create one using the 3D printer.
The technology that I will need to ensure my vision of using 3D printing to enhance learning is 3D printing software such as Blender and Tinkercad. Tinkercad does work on the students’ tablets and Blender has already been installed in two of the school’s computer labs. I will need to make sure that we are using the 3D printer wisely, but at the same time not being frugal with the filament as it is important to experiment and to learn from mishaps. The students and I will work together in determining cost for printing and I will enlist in their help in making sure that we have a system for replacing the filament (such as creating a small “store” where other classrooms can purchase items created with the printer.) My focus is about the learning and not so much the objects actually printed, so using 3D printing software will be the main technology focus.
My goal in math is for the students to integrate various concepts as opposed to focusing on specific concepts in isolation when integrating 3D printing. For example, I want the students to create their dream house on the computer while paying attention to area, perimeter, and include particular rooms. They will need to use scale sizing as well when building their dream house. In science, the students will use 3D printing to test concepts. For example, the students will need to design an animal that will be suitable for a particular environment that they studied. The biggest challenge that I will have to overcome is differentiating instruction so that all of students will be able to participate and expand their learning since many of them lack basic math skills. Another challenge will be technology integration as the tablets that the students have are limited in what programs they can use. For 3D modeling, it is very difficult to manipulate objects on tablets and I will need to ensure that I setup times to take my students to the computer lab to use desktop computers. I need to plan accordingly to ensure the students will have sufficient computer lab block time so that their modeling time will not be interrupted. Another problem that I expect to arise is the actual 3D printing. I want to focus more on the modeling and designing in case all projects are not able to be printed out with the 3D printer.
With student blogs and personal websites, the students will be very involved with their own learning. This keeps the students invested in the classroom. They will keep a digital portfolio with pictures and blogs so that they can reflect daily on activities in and out of the classroom. This will help the students make real world connections and make connections with other disciplines as they are constantly recalling concepts. The use of 3D printing and design will produce tangible items that the students can share and further explore. Manipulations and hands-on tasks helps the students recall more as it targets other senses. The students will work on individual projects and on group projects. A large classroom project will be a service learning project where our classroom will connect with Enabling the Future. In this project, the classroom will research various ways 3D printing could help people with disabilities, specifically disabilities that require prosthetics. We will connect with a person that is in need of a prosthetic and through, Enabling the Future, create one using the 3D printer.
The technology that I will need to ensure my vision of using 3D printing to enhance learning is 3D printing software such as Blender and Tinkercad. Tinkercad does work on the students’ tablets and Blender has already been installed in two of the school’s computer labs. I will need to make sure that we are using the 3D printer wisely, but at the same time not being frugal with the filament as it is important to experiment and to learn from mishaps. The students and I will work together in determining cost for printing and I will enlist in their help in making sure that we have a system for replacing the filament (such as creating a small “store” where other classrooms can purchase items created with the printer.) My focus is about the learning and not so much the objects actually printed, so using 3D printing software will be the main technology focus.