3D printing on syllabus for the young ‘boffins’

Selborne Primary School has taken learning to the next level with the introduction of a 3D printer which turns digital file information into three-dimensional solid objects.

Using the printer, the school has so far made a miniature skeleton, printed bone by bone. The school’s emblem has also been printed.

Using computer software called Tinkercad, pupils start with the basic design of an object, and then they “tinker” with the shape or add elements to it. Once complete, the object is printed using plastic filament.

Deputy principal Abrie Pepler said the printer had been included as part of the syllabus for Grades 4 to 7 in an effort “to expand pupils’ minds”.

“What we’re trying to do is get kids to start thinking out of the box,” said Pepler. “It would be easy to get kids to go to a hardware store and build objects with mom and dad’s help, but now they are forced to tap into their creativity.

“We want to produce kids that can one day become entrepreneurs ... to be able to think independently, and to be able to go into business for themselves one day.”

Pepler said by the end of the term pupils should be able to draw, design, produce objects and evaluate and communicate their ideas clearly and coherently.

The Grade 7 class will be making a lamp as their major project for the year, and pupils are currently making bookends for the library.

“The really nice thing about this printer is that you can make practically anything under the sun – from cellphone covers, shoes, building blocks to puzzles. I saw an article on the internet the other day about a pupil who had made his own chess pieces,” said Pepler.

“Since this printer has been here we have had kids knocking on the door every few minutes, wanting to print something. They are so excited. The incentive for them right now is that only the best design will be printed – so this really pushes them to work harder and think more creatively.”

Selborne Primary introduced tablets to classrooms in 2013; they were used by the Grade 7 class to produce a history project.

Last year, the school was one of five across the world to be invited to join a Google “hangout” with the Pope where pupils were allowed to ask his Holiness anything.

This came just a few months after the school adopted Google Classroom, with 350 Chrome books now used by the senior grades.

“The world is changing and children need to be exposed to this kind of technology if they have any hope of making it in the future,” said Pepler. “Just imagine, one of these kids could one day invent something ....” — zisandan@dispatch.co.za