PrintLab Classroom PrintLab Classroom 3D Printing Curriculum - 7 Day Trial
PrintLab Classroom is an online platform providing 3D printing resources for schools, including mini courses, projects, and global design challenges. The platform empowers students with foundational 3D printing knowledge and guides them through the design process to create their own 3D printed products. It also offers real-world problem-solving opportunities through design competitions. The platform features easy student access, time-saving resources for teachers, and monthly updates with new resources.
- Wide selection of educational 3D printing resources
- Real-world problem-solving design challenges
- Time-saving features for teachers
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PrintLab Classroom 3D Printing Curriculum
PrintLab is an online platform of 3D printing resources for schools. The platform allows educators to handpick from a wide selection of mini courses, projects, and challenges, empowering students to create their own unique 3D printed products. The resources are divided into three categories:
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Mini Courses: These courses utilize informative video content and step-by-step tutorials to help students build a strong foundation in 3D printing and technical skills using Tinkercad or Fusion 360 software (both available for free in Education).
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Projects: Guiding students through the entire design process, these projects focus on creating specific types of products in areas like assistive technology, customized product design, and STEM. They include briefs, background information, 3D design tutorials, portfolio templates, and instructions for implementing various design methods.
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Challenges: Global design competitions that offer prizes, where students tackle real-world problems using 3D printing. Challenge briefs are broad and open-ended, granting students complete freedom in both the product creation and the design process. PrintLab's inaugural challenge is Make:able, a yearly assistive technology design competition, with more challenges set to be launched.
Top Features:
- Wide selection of mini courses, projects, and challenges.
- Empowering students to design unique 3D printed products.
- Mini courses for foundational 3D printing knowledge and technical skills.
- Projects guiding students through the design process in various fields.
- Global design challenges with real-world problem-solving opportunities.
- One-click access for students through shareable links without logins.
- Time-saving features for teachers, including standards-aligned lesson plans, portfolio templates, assessment rubrics, and regular updates with new resources each month.
3D Printing Course, Projects and Challenges
3D printing is making huge waves across every industry sector - and we believe anyone can learn how to use this exciting technology to bring value to the world. PrintLab guides people through the full creative process to make their own unique products - from personalized homeware to architectural models, assistive technology, and many other solutions that benefit from the customization that 3D printing offers.
Build Foundational Knowledge and Technical Skills
Begin by selecting mini courses to build foundational knowledge and technical skills. Begin by selecting mini-courses to build foundational knowledge and technical skills. After learning about the 3D printing process and industry, take on our 3D design mini-courses to learn how to design your own 3D models from scratch. Our courses teach you how to use either Tinkercad (beginner) or Fusion 360 (intermediate) software - both options are completely free for education.
Projects to Guide You Through the Full Creative Process
Projects guide you through each stage of the design process to make specific types of products in the fields of assistive technology, customized product design, and STEM. They include a brief, background information, 3D design tutorials, portfolio templates, and instructions on implementing various design methods such as user interviews, brainstorms, idea sketches, product evaluations, and more.
Courses and Projects Will Prepare You For Open-Ended Design Challenges
Challenges are global design competitions (with prizes!) where you will solve a real-world problem with 3D printing. Challenge briefs are broad and open-ended, giving you complete freedom in both the product created and the design process undertaken. Our first challenge is Make:able - a yearly assistive technology design competition. Additional challenges will be launched in due course.
Design Method Toolkit
The Design Method Toolkit is designed to be used whilst working on projects or challenges. It provides you with a range of step-by-step problem-solving and design activities that can be used at each stage of the design process – whether it’s to research topics, generate ideas, design prototypes, evaluate solutions, or present work. Although PrintLab projects guide you in using a pre-defined set of design methods, you can adapt projects by selecting your own methods and design process. The toolkit can also be used to tackle PrintLab’s Make:able Challenge or challenges in your own day-to-day life.
A Platform Optimized for 3D Printing Education
Accelerating the growth of 3D printing in education is at the heart of what we do, which is why we have a range of features designed specifically for educators.
- Share Links: Select a resource, generate a share link, and send it to your students to give them one-click access to the learning platform. No logins required!
- Teacher Instructions: Each resource comes with teacher instructions, which provide you with step-by-step lesson plan instructions. As you go through the resource sections, the teacher instructions update accordingly.
- Portfolio Templates: As students move through each stage of a project, the learning platform guides them in filling in a Google Slides template to document their design process - resulting in a beautiful and professional portfolio of work.
- Assessment Resources: Our curriculum is aligned to the following standards: NGSS, ISTE, UK National Curriculum, and Australian Curriculum for Design and Technologies (v9). Resources come with both curriculum alignment documents and editable assessment rubrics, which can be used to grade student portfolios.
License Options
Teacher License: (1 Year Access)
PrintLab’s Teacher License is for individual teachers and STEM instructors. It provides you with 1 teacher account and all the content/features listed in the table below.
Site License: (1 Year Access)
PrintLab’s Site License is for schools, libraries, makerspaces, and STEM organizations. It includes up to Unlimited teacher accounts and unlimited share links - each of which consists of all the content/features listed in the table below. *All licenses expire exactly 1 year after the first license is activated.
What are the Differences Between the Teacher License and the Site License?
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| Option | Teacher License | Site License |
| Duration | 1-Year | 1-Year |
| Price | $299 | $999 |
| Number of Instructors | 1 Teacher Account | Unlimited Teacher Accounts |
| Number of Share Links | 3 Links (35 people, per individual link at any one time) | Unlimited Share Links |
| Optimized for | • Individual Teachers • STEM Instructors |
• Schools |
| Included Features |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is there training for teachers?
- PrintLab resources aren’t just for students, they are a great way for educators to learn new skills. And by delivering PrintLab projects in the classroom and submitting example student portfolios, you can become a PrintLab Certified Educator through our certification program.
What order do I teach the resources in?
- PrintLab was built as a flexible library of resources that you can pick and choose from depending on your curriculum requirements, student skill level, and personal preference. We do however have a pathway of resources that we recommend for those who are new to 3D design and 3D printing. We call this the ‘Fundamentals Pathway’ and information on delivering this pathway is provided in the user guide.
What type of 3D printer is required to use PrintLab?
- Our curriculum is suitable for use with any FFF (fused filament fabrication) 3D printer. Our resources do not cover how to use specific machines but provide generic guidance and 3D printing tips, which apply to all FFF 3D printers.
What subjects is PrintLab for?
- Many of our users teach Design, Technology, or Engineering classes but several projects have cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as Science, History, and Geography.
What age group is PrintLab for?
- PrintLab resources are suitable for users of ages 10+. In the teacher instructions (where relevant), we suggest various ways in which you can adapt projects and challenges for both younger/beginner students and older/advanced students.
Still Not Sure if PrintLab is right for you? No Problem!
7 Day Free Trials to PrintLab are available for new users. Select "7 Day Free Trial" from the list of options and a member of our Sales Team will reach out to provide you with an access link to the Printlab platform.
