Category: Weekly Reflections

I think the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about cross-curricular activities and 3D printing is math. I grew up playing Lego everyday and I now realize that a lot of the building techniques I was using employed math. My younger sister who just started high school, would enter a popsicle bridge building contest all the way through elementary school. Although not directly tied to the numerical side of math engineering structures like bridges is highly mathematical. So using a resource like a 3D printer to create math activities around spatial awareness, measurement, estimation and geometry would be excellent.

Next I think there are a lot of pros (its “cool”, hands on, and uses tech) to using 3D printing as a resource for middle schoolers however, I think a lot of them might find the process daunting or too complicated. I think the end result would be very useful for some learners who gain understanding kinetically and spatially. However, the design process and moral through the creation process would require support and help. In my experience many middle schoolers are often daunted at a seemly large task (that’s not that large) and close their minds to even starting.

I attempted to make a little bridge on tinkerCAD, although admittedly I found the process mentally taxing so I think I would understand the potential feelings from my students. I included pictures below!

I used AI a lot during my practicum and I have used it a lot while working with kids. I’ve mostly used chat GPT just cause its what I have been familiar with but it’s interesting to play around with perplexity AI, I can see the similarities. What I found AI to be really useful for during my practicum was to “gameify” subjects. Or to make popular or common games infused with a lesson I wanted to teach. I also like how to can tweak the level and difficulty of the games. I tried a few times to get the AI to pull directly out of the BC curriculum but I never quite found that it produced what I was looking for in my games. But, the great thing about AI is you can just ask it to make another iteration or version of the game and it takes very little time or work. Lastly many resources support learning through games like this article I read very recently.

An Example of what Chat GPT came up with when I got it to make me a game.

On the student side of things I had a few students try and use AI for some of the assignments I assigned during practicum. The good thing was they were very open about it and asked me if they could use it. In the end very few of them actually used it for anything they handed in. I think this was the case because the tasks I often got them to do were very specific to what we have just learn or what I had just taught them. The way I explained it to them was that AI is really good for the “fluff” of assignments, when being vague and general is required. But, when you are trying to be specific it’ll probably be quicker to just do the task yourself than to get AI to do it for you.

My new favorite song.

So this is a pretty loaded question. To directly answer the question. YES we do need to “re-imagine” or revamp education very quickly. How we do that, oh boy, part of me knows, part of me does not. Also what we re-imagine it too is also a pretty loaded question. I think perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome before we can “re-imagine” anything is everyone getting on the same page. There are so many different takes on teaching that stem from culture, age and personality, which I think is great. But, to reach a unified understanding of what we want to re-imagine education into will take some time. Luckily we are in the age of technology where talking to someone across the globe is a few clicks away, I am optimistic that it is possible to “re-imagine” education for the better.

For your listening pleasure.