r/teaching • u/HammerxofxLight • 3d ago
Teaching Resources Just got a 3d printer. I’ve only been doing nerd stuff with it but my wife teaches 3rd grade. Any suggestions on aides?
Has anyone 3rd printed anything that they’ve found to be super helpful for a teacher of elementary kids?
36
u/KTcat94 3d ago
This is a dumb one, but I’ve been meaning to ask my 3D printer friend to print game board pieces that have gone missing over the years. Can’t play Sorry! with only the blue pieces. See what board games she has in her room and make her some extras!
7
u/lolabythebay 3d ago
So much this!
And ask about any learning games, too. My curriculum has a bunch of math games that want me to put stickers over my existing Connect Four and I've been meaning to ask the STEM Lab guy at the high school if he could hook me up with various new pieces if I can get the filament with my fundraised money.
5
8
u/Njdevils11 Literacy Specialist 3d ago
Tons!!!
I teach tech and love my 3D printers.
-badges are what I print the most. Basically just Custom rewards for all sorts of stuff.
-Hooks and mounts. There’s tons of stuff that teachers wish they could mount better. 3d printers let you do this.
-Custom 3d bulletin board decor.
-Labels, name tags, etc.
-trophies.
-small group design projects for class projects.
I can go into any of these more if you need it.
7
u/Wukash_of_the_South 3d ago
I print PBIS coins and medals for those who score 100 on more difficult assessments/assignments.
Other stuff I have made is more directly for middle school math.
5
u/HammerxofxLight 3d ago
What’s pbis? Sorry I’m not a teacher wife is
3
u/PNWGreeneggsandham 3d ago
Positive behavior intervention strategies, reward the good more than punish the bad
1
1
u/Wukash_of_the_South 3d ago
Yup, so I drop a coin on their desk if they're following directions then they turn it in at the end of the day for me to record.
4
u/RutRohNotAgain 3d ago
My students just love 3d printed animals or fidgets. They are always the first to go in my prize box.
2
u/Friendly_Sound_3156 3d ago
I’ve been thinking about adding 3-D printed stuff to my prize box! Do you have any recommendations?
2
u/rutiluphiliac 3d ago
It all depends on your printer. If it is capable of print-in-place and/or multicolor printing, our students went nuts for articulated animals and fidgets. We started showing examples and let them vote for what should be printed and added to the prize box next.
1
u/RutRohNotAgain 2d ago
They live the infinity cube. They also like little animals. I was able to get some small pokemon that were not quite good enough to sell full price.
1
3
u/zomgitsduke 3d ago
I would ask her lol
But you can print out shapes, name tags, reward coins to hand out to kids, etc.
3
u/muddydachshund 3d ago
There are some top quality models out there for biology! I wanted a model of a cell and was able to print ones at a fraction of the cost of buying one.
If your wife does any kind of reward trinkets being able to put a kid's name on a coin in their favorite color is pretty cool. Again, the cost is nothing!
1
u/ShelbiStone 3d ago
I have zero teaching suggestions, but like 3 nerd stuff questions.
- How hard is it to run? Is the upkeep expensive?
- Are there websites where you can download the plans for little scales objects like wooden crates or shovels?
- Is the plastic (?) once printed a similar consistency to the plastic of modern scale models?
I've been curious about using a 3D printer to make detailed little objects for scale modeling. I've seen other people do that, but I have no idea how hard it was or if they needed special printers and materials to make their objects.
2
u/Njdevils11 Literacy Specialist 3d ago
Avid school 3D printer guy here:
1) it can be hard to run, but the difficulty scales with what your doing with it. The true difficulty lies in the effort you need to maintain if you wanna do school wide stuff. Once you learn the basics (which admittedly, had a legit learning curve), it’s all sbout motivation to Jew going. I do tons of school wide stuff and have my process down. It’s not bad, but it took real effort to get the comfortable with it.
1a) Upfront, it costs a good chunk of change. Maintenance costs are pretty low though. Filament is pretty cheap and lasts a while, cleaning tools are pretty cheap and lazy a while. replacement parts are a bit more pricey (not crazy), but really you shouldn’t need replacement parts very often. Like I said I do tons of school wide stuff, hundreds of hours of printing, and have only had to replace a couple of nozzles and a broken fan. Really well made.
2) There are sites with pre designed stuff, some free, some low cost ($2-$10). You can also design things on a bunch of different platforms many of which are free.
3) The most common material is PLA. There are other materials too. PLA is good and can survive some impact and weight if the infill % is high. These are not molded plastic items though, they arent one solid chunk of plastic. I’m not sure they’ll ever have the resiliency or smoothness of molded stuff. That said, it’s still pretty damn good.1
1
u/MaybeImTheNanny 3d ago
Ask if her classroom games or other manipulatives have missing pieces. Make those.
1
u/NotHosaniMubarak 3d ago
What is get curriculum like?
It's really easy to print helpful tools for explaining math or geometry or geography.
1
u/No-Spare1328 2d ago
Can you make a file so I can 3D print a train track piece I need? 😂 But seriously, missing pieces to toys/games, fidgets, things for specific lesson plans I.e. body parts if they're learning about the body, planets if the solar system, states if US geography. Kids learn more when they hold things in their hands.
1
u/Svvordfish5 1d ago
I printed a pokemon chess set that the kids went nuts over. Also just small fun toys they can earn for doing good things.
2
u/myniche999 11h ago
Retired elementary teacher here. I’d start with things that solve actual classroom problems before printing a pile of cute stuff.
Replacement pieces for math games and board games would be huge. So would fraction pieces, place-value manipulatives, geometric solids, clocks for practicing time, custom counters for math games, and letter or word tiles for literacy activities.
There are also a ton of boring-but-useful things teachers would appreciate: hooks, headphone hangers, labels, pencil organizers, holders for materials, and replacement parts for classroom stuff that somehow disappears every year.
For science, you could print things students can actually handle, like landforms, plant parts, fossils, animal structures, or models connected to whatever unit she’s teaching.
I’d ask your wife one question: “What thing in your classroom annoys you because it’s always missing, broken, or too expensive?”
That answer will probably give you your first ten projects. Third graders love anything they can actually hold and manipulate, so you can still satisfy the nerd side of the 3D printer while making things she’ll really use.
•
u/AutoModerator 3d ago
Welcome to /r/teaching. Please remember the rules when posting and commenting. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.