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I am involved with research about how teachers can use representations to teach students about science. Science is full of representations, whether they are photographs of the moon, a sine wave or a animated model of cells. Students are given new insights into science when they can build their own representations with teachers.

As 3D printers have come down in price, I could clearly see they were being applied to more and more projects and I thought that perhaps they could be used to help students create new representations! I staggered to think of the many possibilities this new technology could allow students! Of course, for teachers to start using 3D printers, they really need to get hands on experience with them - and I thought that I could do this - and perhaps do some research that could help teachers everywhere get started with 3D printers.

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The funds will be used to purchase:
- 2 x 3D printers (pictured)
- full tech support
- printing materials for 2 terms of school

The schools gets get to keep the 3D printer at the end of the project.

One printer will be given to the primary school, so that the teacher can use it with his/her classroom and to experiment with different ways to use it in conjunction with the curriculum. The second printer will be used at Deakin University, so that the research team can experiment with different ways that 3D printers can be used when teaching science. Together with the teacher(s) on the project, we can discuss different ways they can be used and try out our ideas on the 3D printers.

Objectives

I hope to work with a primary school teacher over two terms, teaching science, to see what objects can be created and how they can be incorporated in to the curriculum. At the end of the two terms we will examine the 3D objects and lesson plans that were developed throughout the project. This will help us understand the pros and cons of 3D printing in the classroom and how they might be improved upon in later projects. We would interview the teacher to discuss the experiences they have had with 3D printers and how/if it benefitted the students and what they achieved. We would also like to conduct interviews with any students who volunteer to talk about their experiences and whether they felt they gained anything by using 3D printers. We expect there will be pros and cons to using this technology and are keen to understand what they might be and work out ways they might be overcome in future.

Outcomes

A number of outcomes are expected from the project, including:
- A research report, which will include: examination of the 3D objects produced, how the representations assisted students learning and how they were successfully (or not) incorporated into the curriculum; outcomes of the interviews and experiences of 3D printing from the teachers and students.
- Lesson plans for primary science teachers using 3D printers. We will collate the lessons plans which were developed by the Deakin team with teachers in order to use 3D printing as part of the lesson. The lesson plans will be part of the rewards for the project so people anywhere in the world who are interested might be able to incorporate 3D printing into their teaching.
- 3D object plans that were used and developed throughout the project would be saved and made available so that people would be able to print out their own 3D object that was used in the classroom and even try it out with their own students.
- Resources that were discovered during the project would be collected and distributed with the 3D object plans so that people could have a thorough collection of the resources used in the project.

I'm excited to think about the possibilities we might come up with!