Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Printers bring new dimension
Teacher says machine has become invaluable part of classroom
The buzz of the 3D printer in Carrie Beach’s classroom is so common her students are somewhat alarmed when they don’t hear it.
“They ask what’s wrong,” said Beach, an eighth-grade science teacher at Washington Junior High School in Bentonville.
With student projects that can take hours to print, Beach’s 3D printer gets a good workout nearly every day. And, according to Beach, the machine has become an invaluable part of her classroom.
“I used to think we would never use a classroom 3D printer, now I don’t know how we would survive without it,” she wrote in an Instagram post last week.
Though 3D printers are still a long way from being commonplace, they are popping up increasingly in Northwest Arkansas schools. They use a process called additive manufacturing, whereby an object is created by adding material one layer at a time. Materials vary, but most
3D printers found in schools use a low-cost plastic filament.
The Bentonville Public Schools Foundation awarded grants of $4,000 last year to each of three technology teachers at the junior high schools for 3D printers. Beach also received money from the foundation for her printer earlier this year. Her printer cost $600.
The filament rolls for her printer cost about $45 each, but Beach said she’s gone through less than half of three rolls this year.
“It’s exposing them to a new technology they’ve never seen before,” Beach said. “They’re all excited to use it so they are always looking for a reason to use it.”
Students in her class use a program called Tinkercad to design objects they want to print. The printer works off of those designs.
“You can be as extremely specific as you want it to be,” said Harshdeep Singh, 13, a Washington Junior High eighth-grader.
There can be some trial and error involved. What looks good on the computer won’t necessarily hold up in its physical form if not designed thoughtfully.
“You just have to be careful,” Harshdeep said.
Caden Blevins, a seventh-grader, was designing a cellphone case in Beach’s classroom on Thursday. He’d printed two designs already, both of which didn’t quite fit his phone. He was hoping the third design would be a charm.
“Last time it almost fit,” said Caden, as he looked over the design on his computer.
Moises Duenas, another seventh- grader, designed and printed a mini prototype of what he called a “Sparta Suit” for use in the military. It resembled a robot equipped with a powerful gun and large shield, meant for the protection of soldiers in battle.
“I thought the printer was really cool,” said Moises, 13, who said he’d like to be an engineer for the military. “This was something I’ve been wanting to make since I was little.”
Leah Cheek, a third-grade teacher at Bentonville’s Willowbrook Elementary School, was a finalist last year for an award from the Arkansas Society for Technology in Education. For that she received a MakerBot Mini 3D printer, which at the time was worth about $1,500.
She and her students use it to print objects that help them learn, Cheek said. An example of that is when they were studying Martin Luther King Jr. The class decided to print a miniature replica of King’s memorial in Washington.
“It’s made kids’ learning come to life,” Cheek said. “We only print something that helps with our learning. We don’t just print a trinket.”
The 3D printer in Gary Springwater’s classroom at Rogers High School is a bit more complex. The district acquired it about 10 years ago with grant money. It cost about $20,000, Springwater said.
Springwater teaches drafting and design, architectural and engineering classes. Students may print objects — a door hinge, for example — to help them understand how things work. It can take more than 24 hours to print something the size of a person’s hand, he said.
The technology opens students’ eyes to possibilities they wouldn’t have otherwise imagined, Springwater said.
“They’re thinking, ‘I could be an inventor,’” he said. “That would be like a light bulb coming on for me if I were in high school.”
Jay Gilstrap, a teacher at Rogers Heritage High School, used a 3D printer in his computer-aided design class two years ago. It’s a MakerBot Replicator 2X, which he said cost about $3,000.
For one project, students were instructed to design something that interested them. One student — a football player who spent a lot of time in the weight room — designed a miniature weight, scaled down to a diameter of 3 inches.
“It’s a nice little design. He put some lettering on it, personalized it,” Gilstrap said. “The kids really enjoyed the project. Anything handson they can do, it’s a lot more advantageous.”