Loughborough
University has helped open up the world of 3D printing to primary
school children through a unique engineering initiative.
The
project, which was funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, was
launched to get children interested in engineering from an early age and
offered schools the chance to win their own 3D printer.
3D
printing allows physical objects to be built directly from 3D
computer-aided-design (CAD) data without the need for tooling and with
minimal human intervention. It is already widely used in design and
manufacturing industries.
The
‘Tinkering with Technology’ initiative was held in partnership with
Loughborough, Kirklees Directorate for Children and Young People,
Learning, the Open University and education company Kide. It is one of
the first activities of its type in the primary school age group in the
UK.
Professor
Russell Harris from the University’s Wolfson School of Mechanical and
Manufacturing Engineering led Loughborough’s involvement in the
project. He is an expert in 3D printing and is especially keen to
explore how the technology can be exploited in new and unconventional
areas.
To
take part in the initiative teams of children from different schools had
to put forward pitches for why they would like to have a 3D printer and
what they would use it for. Birkenshaw Primary School came out on top
after they demonstrated some novel ideas for their use of the 3D printer
to produce personalised toys, which they could trade between one
another. This grasp of entrepreneurship especially appealed to the
judges.
As
well as receiving the printer the school was visited by Dejan Mitrovic
from Kide, who helped the children engage with 3D printing in exciting
and innovative ways through hands-on activities.
Professor
Harris said: “Initiatives like this are essential in inspiring the next
generation of budding engineers. We were delighted to be able to take
part in this project and show young children just how exciting
engineering can be. Additive manufacturing and 3D printing has the
potential to transform how and what we can manufacture. The highly
visual nature of immediately transforming their ideas and designs into
parts which are then ‘grown’ in a very short time really captured the
interest and inventiveness of the children.
“We
hope that activities like these might spawn a long term interest in
technology and innovation, both personally and academically. We were
extremely impressed by the speed at which children of this age were able
to grasp and work with the techniques and methods. We believe that a
major factor behind this was by engaging the children in their peer
environment and by learning through hands-on practice.”
Sources: loughboroughecho.net Oct 31 2012 By Isaac Ashe
