3D Printing at Your Library

Type: Active
Age: Middle school
Optimal size: 6-10
Estimated cost: $1 - $25
Planning time: <1 hour
Frequency: Monthly

Learning outcomes

● Think flexibly ● Innovate ● Demonstrate an openness to risk-taking ● Experiment, prototype and test ideas ● Create original work or responsibly remix existing content to make something new ● Engage in personal expression ● Use materials and tools for developmental, educational and recreational needs

Instructions

How to Do 3D Printing Programming

Teens like to 3D print and you want to do programming but it’s scary to imagine 20 teens in your program and you only have one 3D printer. There’s a simple solution, limit your attendance. The  following can be done with adults. We open 3D printing to eight adults because they need less assistance.

We have a 3D printing program once a month, because that’s all we can handle but you can have more. We limit the attendance to four teens and this is how we do our program:

• We have four 3D printers. We have Flash Forge printers and they cost about $350-they came highly recommended from a state of the art Fab Lab in Chicago. We only use our printers once a month but the Fab Lab uses them daily and they hold up. But with three printers, we are able to host a one hour 3D printing program and give teens their print before the class is over.
• We use Tinkercad to teach 3D printing basics. Tinkercad has about five lessons for the teens to take. This is great because you don’t have to teach anything; you just help them when they get stuck. The more savvy the teen, the quicker they will get through the lessons but it takes about 20 minutes.
• When they complete the lessons, give teens about 15 minutes to design something and be strict about the time limit. Remember, this is the first class and you can offer open 3D printing if they want to return to spend more time designing something intricate.
• When they are done designing, shrink the print so that it takes under 15 minutes to complete. The Flash Forges are great because they don’t take longer than 5 minutes to heat up and calibrate and all that stuff. You can get them going while they are designing so that their print really ONLY takes 15 minutes.
• You can have the teens sit in front of their 3D printer to watch it print and you can give them an iPad to play with while they wait. In the meantime, you can have your next class of four teens begin the lessons.
• Once again, offer open 3D printing times so that the teens who took the beginner class can return to spend more time designing.
• Show teens how to save, resize their print, and send to the printer so that they don’t need staff assistance. You can make a rule that staff has to check the design to make sure it will print but if you are comfortable, give teens as much autonomy as you can.

But I Only Have One 3D Printer!!!

If this is the case, you can still limit the attendance but I’d recommend limiting the print size for shorter printing times even during open labs because you have to print everything. You don’t want to spend your entire work day 3D printing everyone’s stuff unless you have a volunteer.

But I Want to do More Advanced Prints!

Give teens a challenge project.

• Have teens design a cell phone holder
• Design a cell phone case
• Have teens create a jewelry company and have them design earrings or other accessories.
• Take your fandom events to the next level and have teens design an object related to their fandom-Harry Potter; Doctor Who; Steven Universe; etc
• Attract your Minecrafters by 3D printing the structures they make in Minecraft. Check out Instructables for instructions.
• Incorporate LEDs into 3D printing with this Instructables lesson.
• Take a drawing and turn it into a 3D print.
• Make 3D prints of your teens!

But I Don’t Have Time to Print Lots of Stuff For People

Printing things for lots of people is time consuming and many library workers don’t want to do it-that includes me. But if you still want to do 3D printing, what can you do? You can pre-print projects and have a short program for participants to paint and/or turn the print into jewelry/keychains. You can turn the program into a how-to-solder project.

• Have participants register and print their initials or their name before the program. During the program, they can turn their initials/name into an accessory and you can teach them how to solder.
• Have the 3D printing running so that patrons can watch and ask questions.

3D printers are great machines that have lots of uses. Look at your demographic, your staff, your time, and your budget to decide the best way to provide programming.

Here are some other 3D printing programming ideas:

• Lego 3D Design Challenge
• Graphic and 3D Design Challenge
• 3D Printer Club

Evaluation

• Focusing on design is a great way to teach critical thinking and problem solving skills. During your first 3D print class, stress that you want the teens to design something original or remix. This way you can offer multiple classes with more teens if you only have one printer.
• The lessons on Tinkercad are very helpful and allow teens to learn the minute details of 3D design at their own pace.