We teach it as part of our Drafting and Design program at Ozarks Technical Community College based out of Springfield MO.  The students first learn 2D drafting and drawing with AutoCAD, then they progress to 3D and finally get to print out their parts.  3D printing is a very fast growing field and one that I think will of great interest to the makers of the world.  I think we are several years yet from one in every home, but with the prices steadily dropping, it really is becoming a viable technology for the home shop.

Thanks for sharing the leason plans. Good info.

I have been working with the MakerBot Education group and am in the process of building a set of open source lessons that can be downloaded and integrated into classroom curricula as part of the SOLID Learning program (http://www.solidlearning.org) but seem to spend most of my weekends conducting workshops for teachers who want to build their own RepRaps rather than building lessons for the students right now. What's magnificnet about the community is that teachers will often share their individual designs and use recommendations with others using standard 3D Model repositories. It's a great time to be in education!

VR,

Kalani Kirk Hausman

The solid learning material looks interesting, I like the cross subject references

I think with a lot of tools it's easy to fall into the trap of spending more time tweeking, customising and enhancing the tool rather than using it to make other things. The RepRap is classic for this as it's intended for making more RepRaps

Thanks for the posting & thread.  We have two social media locations to follow 3D Printing - ENJOY!

Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/mfgstories/3d-printing/

Scoop-It - http://www.scoop.it/t/3d-printing-the-third-dimension-is-here

Hi,

I was scanning this a.m. re: 3D printing...Exploring and teaching about the exploration is fantastic.  I applaud the teachers challenging our kids to learn new, participate in it, to not be afraid..but learn and challenge forward. From the EE Times: An article to point just this out...

UK Elementary Students to Study Robotics, 3D Printing & Laser-Cutting – What About the US?

I just read that, under a new national curriculum, students in the UK as young as five will study robotics, 3D printing, programming, and laser-cutting technologies. Why? The UK is putting muscle behind the desire to have more students study engineering, construction, and manufacturing. Addressing a 100,000 shortfall annually of math, science, technology, and engineering graduates, the new classes will replace such life skills classes as sewing and bicycle riding.

Happy New Year ALL!

Thank you, Andy. I am now working with Universities in Texas as well as public (K-12) schools in NY, TX, HI and other parts of the world. My teachers are building 3DR RepRaps, which can be self-maintained but which can also be used to build many examples for use in classrooms. The DremelFuge is now being used in both University and Healthcare settings needed ultracentrifuge capability - and the sub-$100 USD each (including the rotary tool) makes them very easy to bring into use. The UK has been leading the US in 3D printed educational content so far, but I am hopeful that we will expand our use as time goes forward.

Kirk