We Have Launched a Project for the Use of 3D Printing in Education

At the beginning of June, we started cooperating with the MUNI Faculty of Education and Y Soft Corporation, a long-term partner of the university, on a grant project entitled "3D printing and its application in primary and secondary schools". We succeeded together in the call of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic Éta in the competition of 526 other applicants and we ended on best place of the whole MUNI.

3D Printing as a Teaching Tool

The project’s vision is to connect the best skills of teachers and students when using the potential of 3D printing to increase the quality of classroom curriculum and to contribute to the growth and development of teacher’s competencies.

The output will be a methodology for applying 3D printing in schools and how to effectively involve it in teaching. In the first phase we will develop methodologies, then in the second phase we will prepare the teaching lessons.

“The integration of 3D technologies into education will enable the creation of completely new types of teaching aids and approaches and will further increase the availability of teaching models for pupils and students. The final output of the project will be the new methodology mentioned above and 12 publicly accessible free lessons on be3D Academy, which will be intentionally created to reflect the current needs of schools,“ said Kamil Malinka from the Institute of Computer Science at Masaryk University.

Required Skills in the Industry

Why is the importance of introducing 3D printing in education necessary? Martin Dosedla and Zdeněk Hodis from the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University agree that the presence of 3D printing in everyday or work life must be taken into account. "Starting to use 3D printing in primary schools is our priority. We would like to support the use of 3D printers not only in technical and information education, but also, for example, in biology, mathematics, geography and special pedagogy. Everywhere there is the potential to support students' interest in new technologies," explains Zdeněk Hodis.

Companies in all sectors are requiring 3D printing skills across a wide spectrum of industries such as architecture, manufacturing and marketing/design and this trend will grow. The need for faster product prototyping and faster delivery of goods can be a competitive advantage. Supplying workers with 3D printing skills means schools are tasked with preparing students with skills for these career areas. And this project is supposed to help with that.

More information about the project can be found in the press release.