Understanding Additive Manufacturing Is a Plus for 3D ThinkLink Students

YouthQuest’s 3D ThinkLink training gives at-risk teens an advantage in the tech-driven job market where demand for 3D design and printing skills is growing fast.

Our students from Maryland’s Freestate, DC’s Capital Guardian and South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academies learned about the additive manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing, and traditional subtractive manufacturing during last month’s Vocational Orientation field trips. 

In this video, Bill Nye the Science Guy explains why additive manufacturing is the way of the future.




3D Systems Director of Corporate Communications Tim Miller told the students who toured the company’s headquarters in Rock Hill, South Carolina, that demand for workers who understand 3D printing is skyrocketing. Job listings for positions requiring 3D printing skills jumped more than 1,800 percent from 2010 to 2014, according to Wanted Analytics. 

Tim Miller leads a Vocational Orientation
tour of 3D Systems

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers also reported:
… knowing how to use a 3D printer has become an in-demand job skill. A recent report from data company Wanted Analytics found that in one month 35 percent of engineering job listings from a variety of fields, including biomedical, software, and transportation industries, required applicants familiar with 3D printing and its additive manufacturing processes. The same report found that companies are having a difficult time finding candidates with the right skills.

Fortunately for our students, many of these jobs do not require a 4-year college degree, as noted in the Potomac Laser blog:
Interestingly, the new tools being implemented are often automated and the workers who run them do not need advanced degrees. These operators who have an underlying STEM-based skillset can enter the workforce with a high school diploma or associate’s degree at a pay scale averaging 61 percent higher than workers in non-STEM jobs with similar education. 

Students explore additive and subtractive
manufacturing at The Foundery in Baltimore

As our students discovered during their Vocational Orientation visits to businesses and universities, additive and subtractive manufacturing methods are often used in combination. For instance, 3D printing may be used in developing prototypes of a finished product that will be mass-produced through traditional manufacturing techniques. 

CAD (Computer Aided Design) software is used in both types of manufacturing. Our students learn Moment of Inspiration, a professional-level CAD program, so they understand the concept of giving computer-controlled manufacturing devices the instructions to create objects, whether they’re 3D printers or subtractive CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines. 

In addition to technical skills, the 3D ThinkLink Initiative gives students an advantage by emphasizing the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Research by PayScale ranked those at the top of the list of skills hiring managers say are lacking in recent graduates.

Final Report: 3D ThinkLink Pilot Project at PHILLIPS School Was a Success

by Lynda Mann, YouthQuest Foundation Co-Founder and President

Kudos to the PHILLIPS Programs – Annandale School for their daring pilot of The YouthQuest Foundation’s 3D ThinkLink program for students on the autism spectrum as well as students with mental health issues.  

Luke McHugh (left) and Adam Eldert
work on a 3D design

The 3D ThinkLink program’s core outcomes are to teach critical thinking skills, problem solving, and the resiliency to deal with failure. 

Our unique program delivery vehicle, CAD design and 3D scanning and printing, continues to be highly successful with high school dropouts, however this curriculum was untested with other cohorts.

After exploring possibilities with the PHILLIPS Program personnel, we all felt confident the curriculum and the teaching delivery strategies were highly appropriate for their students. But as we all know, the proof is in the pilot.

Henry Spiegelblatt watches one of
his designs being 3D printed

The PHILLIPS Program Final Evaluation Report says the pilot was a success, especially in the areas of student engagement, curriculum implementation and staff support. 
I honestly believe the increased student engagement and the successful curriculum implementation are both a result of the excellent work done by the PHILLIPS Program’s staff, especially the teaching staff – Samuel Son, Jim Field and Marcel Baynes. Their ability to recognize the innate creativity in these special needs youth, and to use the 3D ThinkLink curriculum as a valuable way for the students to express themselves creatively while facilitating growth in critical thinking and problem solving, was brilliant. 

I say this with confidence because we know all curriculum requirements were fully met. But more importantly, the parents and the students both reported not only increased 3D skills and improved problem solving, but also a greater sense of self-esteem and a higher level of confidence.
   

Samuel Son, Marcel Baynes and
Jim Field in teacher training

And how did this happen? I believe it was because the PHILLIPS Program teachers were highly engaged during their teacher training event, seeking deep knowledge and skills before the pilot launched. This high level of engagement led the teachers to create a collaborative learning environment where students felt their creativity was validated. As one student put it, “It means if you think of something really cool in your head, you can just make it.” Another shared, “Like everybody has a piece of creativity in their brain so you have to find a way to get it out (the creativity) and the class helped me to get it out.”
  
We at YouthQuest salute the PHILLIPS Designing Futures Program (3D Design and Print Program), and especially their teachers, for a job well done!

What Can 3D Printing Build? Better Lives for At-Risk Youth

The most important part of our 3D ThinkLink Initiative isn’t 3D printing. It’s all about thinking.

Poor decision-making – what our Co-Founder and President Lynda Mann likes to call “stinkin’ thinkin’” – has led to all sorts of trouble for the at-risk kids we work with. Our project is a fun, hands-on way of showing students how to learn from their mistakes.

A collection of failed phone case prints
in our 3D ThinkLink Creatvity Lab

The process of turning an idea into a 3D-printed object is fraught with failure. 

We have boxes filled with parts that didn’t turn out right the first time, or the second or third or fourth time – and we’re not alone.

In our classes, kids who once quit trying when they failed discover new ways of overcoming obstacles and reaching goals. 

We know our students will benefit from these critical thinking and problem solving skills throughout their lives, even if they don’t continue with 3D printing.

Listen to what some of our students and teachers say about the life lessons learned through the 3D ThinkLink Initiative.