3D Printer – cost £2,000

Key points:-

• Pupils will be challenged by learning 3D modelling and printing and they will work on projects that will encourage team work and collaboration
• 3D modelling and printing can be used within the curriculum and for extended homework and extra-curricular activities
• The skills learned will be useful in careers such as design, engineering, architecture and bio-imaging

3D printing turns computer models into real physical things. The Physics Department would like to use this exciting technology within the curriculum and also to supplement extended homework and extra-curricular activities. Pupils will be encouraged to learn 3D modelling which requires a logical approach, with a firm grip of geometry and good visualisation of three-dimensional space.

There will be opportunities to link this resource with the Physics and Science curriculum, and to produce samples to be used in lessons (e.g. print a replica of a museum piece such as a dinosaur bone/fossil).
Pupils will be encouraged to learn 3D modelling software through extracurricular activities, and competitions will be held to encourage problem solving and artistic design. Pupils will be introduced to the innovative effect of distributed home-manufacturing, and will have the skills required to, in the future, participate actively in a marketplace of items bought online, and printed at home. No need to wait for delivery! Organs, medical implants, housing, rebuilding of coral reefs, cars… this is a growth industry that is going to explode, and Withington Girls should be part of it!

There are also areas of the physics specification at A-level where the properties of materials are studied, and there is opportunity to design and produce complex 3D structures, and test their properties by experiment. 3D modelling applications are challenging to use, and require a logical approach, with a firm grip of geometry and good visualisation of three dimensional space. The skills developed could be useful in engineering, aerospace, architecture, physical modelling, chemical structural analysis and modelling, bio-imaging, and the emerging field of bio-printing.

The Physics Department would like 3D modelling to begin as an extracurricular activity not later than October 2014 in order that the girls can learn the skills required in advance of the printer’s arrival. As soon as purchase can be made it will be set up and they can print what they have been designing