Teacher Training Focuses on Enhancing 3D ThinkLink Curriculum

It’s back-to-school time and students aren’t the only ones doing the learning. Teachers from Maryland’s Freestate ChalleNGe Academy and the PHILLIPS School in Annandale, Virginia, are training in our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab this week.

Jim Field works with an M3D printer

They’re working with our Director of Instruction, Tom Meeks, to improve the 3D ThinkLink curriculum and learn to use some new 3D printing equipment and materials.

Freestate’s Rikiesha Metzger and Jim Field from PHILLIPS are providing valuable insights about how their students have responded to various elements of the curriculum.

Tom Meeks with Rikiesha Metzger

For example, they observed that hands-on activities are crucial for keeping students engaged in learning the basics of Moment of Inspiration 3D design software. Some kids become impatient and tune out when it takes too long to start printing things. As a result, we are reorganizing the lesson plans so that students will be able to print during their very first class session. 

  

In order to improve tracking of students’ progress, Tom and the teachers are adding “assessment projects” to the curriculum. Students will complete a project every week or so to show they’ve mastered key 3D design skills and to exercise the critical thinking and problem solving skills our program emphasizes.  

Rikiesha Metzger, Jim Field and Tom Meeks discuss assessment projects

During three years of teaching at-risk youth about 3D, we’ve learned that these students are especially eager to make things that are personalized, useful and have sentimental value for their family and friends. The assessment projects we’re developing reflect that.

We’re excited to have some new tools that make it possible to create items that can’t be produced with our Cube 2 printers, which use only hard plastic PLA or ABS filament.

The teachers are learning to use the Micro 3D printer, a small, versatile machine made by M3D. It can handle a wide variety of filaments including rubbery and translucent plastics and even materials that change color when exposed to certain temperatures.

These tools will open up all sorts of creative possibilities for our teachers and students as we begin a new 3D ThinkLink class cycle.

Seeing Math and Art in New Ways Through 3D Printing

Teachers often tell us that being in our 3D ThinkLink class helps students do better in math. At the same time, many students say learning about 3D design and printing brings out their artistic creativity.

That’s part of the magic of 3D printing as a teaching tool. It combines mathematics and art in ways that appeal to all sorts of students, especially those who are visual or tactile learners. It’s easier for them to understand an abstract concept when they have the ability to transform it into a physical object they can hold and examine from every angle. And in the process, they sometimes discover there’s beauty in the numbers and formulas.

This idea predates 3D printing by at least a century, as WIRED magazine reported in an article about 19^th-century mathematician Felix Klein. He pioneered the idea of turning equations into three-dimensional models.

“… workers in Klein’s laboratory painstakingly drew the horizontal sections solving a planar version of the equation. Each cross-section was cast separately, in a plaster made from powdered chalk, bone glue, double varnish, essence of lavender and essence of clove. Then the layers were carefully stacked, glued together, and sanded smooth.”

The process is strikingly similar to what’s done by today’s powder-bed 3D printers like the Z450 in our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab. They build objects using layers of engineered gypsum powder and liquid binder. 

“The models were part of a program to make algebra palpable. It’s one thing to check that the derivatives of a function are zero and another to feel the plaster taper to a sharp point. … By making models you can hold in your hands, Klein hoped to keep mathematics anchored to the physical world. ‘Collections of mathematical models and courses in drawing are calculated to disarm, in part at least, the hostility directed against the excessive abstractness of the university instruction,’ Klein said at the 1893 Evanston colloquium. An image or an object does more than ease fear of the unseen, it makes the equation real.”

As WIRED notes, artists and architects were sometimes inspired by the models they saw on display in university math departments. Today, “mathematical artists” such as Paul Nylander and Henry Segerman are producing wondrous creations, thanks to 3D printing.

Others are using additive manufacturing technology to visualize the invisible. They’re turning audio waveforms into 3D-printed art. For example, here’s a keychain charm in the shape of the soundwave of a person saying “I love you.”

One thing we know about our 3D ThinkLink students is that they love to make things that are personalized and unique. While some of the "math art" calculations may be too advanced for our students, making things like rings and bracelets in the shapes of their own voiceprints is well within their abilities.

And those who want to think way outside the box can try to wrap their minds around projects like these 3D-printed optical illusions.

The 3D ThinkLink Initiative: We Can’t Do It Alone

It takes a team to make our 3D ThinkLink Initiative work. Fortunately, we have great partners in this project to build better lives for at-risk youth.

As we move from summertime to a new season of 3D design and printing classes for our students, we’re reminded of how many people and organizations are contributing to the success of our mission.

Topping our MVP (Most Valuable Partners) list is AOC Solutions, which is headed by YouthQuest Co-Founder and Vice President Allen Cage. He explained his dedication helping to at-risk youth recently in a post on the AOC blog:

“I’ve always believed it’s important to give back, especially to young people,” said Allen O. Cage Jr. “During my 24 years of active duty in the Army and over 20 years in business at AOC, I’ve traveled a lot and seen kids who are dealing with some tough situations. A little help can make a big difference. So I think it’s very important to raise funds and give back to these kids.”

Allen’s commitment is contagious. Many AOC employees donate their time and talents to YouthQuest, including Valerie Hightower, recipient of our 2016 Volunteer of the Year Award.

We also honored Duncan-Parnell as our 2016 Community Partner. Like previous award winners Prototype Productions, Inc. and 3D Systems, Duncan-Parnell hosts Vocational Orientation events for our students twice a year, along with providing technical support for our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab.

Longtime supporters like Charlie White at BLA Financial contribute in a variety of ways. Every year, Charlie donates a day of sailing the Chesapeake Bay aboard his 46-foot sloop as one of the items in our golf tournament’s silent auction. This year, Charlie was among the first to purchase a $500 Tech Pack that will empower one of our top students to serve as a mentor. He’s also promoting our Youth Mentor Program on BLA’s website. 

This is an exciting time of year. We’re coming off last month’s golf tournament, our signature annual fundraising event. In a couple of weeks, we’ll host a teacher training session and a new cycle of 3D ThinkLink classes will begin soon at the DC, Maryland and South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academies.

In the months ahead, we’ll expand our partnership with the PHILLIPS Programs for Children and Families and Horizons Hampton Roads.

None of this would be possible without the generous support of our many partners. If you would like to join the team, please contact Operations Manager Juan Louro at juan.louro@youthquestfoundation.org or (703) 234-4633. You can also click here to make a donation.