Coding Reality workshop provides teachers hands-on 3D printing experience

The quiet hum of 3D printers could be heard throughout the boardroom at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

The room was transformed into a maker space of sorts. Teachers from 13 Arkansas school districts were printing projects they had designed during the Coding Reality workshop June 1-3 at ASMSA.

Sounds of delight filled the room as the first pieces the teachers designed themselves were printed on their Printbot Play 3D printer. Sounds of frustration sometimes could be heard as well when a piece didn’t turn out as hoped or a printing or design problem occurred.

It’s the same emotions their students and fellow teachers in the home district will have as they learn to work with 3D printers. It’s the sounds that come from a hands-on process that many of the teachers here haven’t experienced in a computer science class.

Lori Kagebein of Wonderview High School made blocks that resembled LEGOS on the first day of the workshop. She did well enough that they fit together. She enjoyed being able to come up with her own designs to print. Having the freedom to design and print something that interests her made the experience more enjoyable, she said.

She also found that she could do more than she initially thought she would be able to do.

“I was kind of limited with what I thought I could do with [the printer],” she said. “But I found out I could do all of that plus more. It’s also given me places where that I can go to find what other people have done.

“To actually see it printed — it’s one thing to think in your mind you can do this. Then to actually do it makes you start thinking if I can do that then I can do this and I can do this.”

She said Nick Seward, the workshop’s instructor and an ASMSA computer science instructor, gave the teachers the foundation to begin designing items that interested them. Initially they designed and printed small squares to help the teachers become familiar with the printers and design software. Then they were free to create their own design.

“First you make your little square and you’re like ‘Yay, I made this!’,” Kagebein said. “Then you make your own design and print it. I loved being able to hold my own design. Then all you want to do is ‘OK, how can I make it better, and what else can I make?’”

The Coding Reality workshop is part of ASMSA’s Coding Arkansas’s Future initiative. The goal of the initiative is to provide expanded computer science education courses for schools across Arkansas through ASMSA’s digital learning program as well as provide training, support and mentoring to teachers across the state in computer science.

ASMSA offered Coding Reality to the teachers for free, covering the costs of housing, meals and the printer, which workshop participants were able to take with them at the end of the event.

Teachers from Spring Hill High School, Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative,  Spring Hill, Caddo Hills School District, Mammoth Spring High School, Huntsville High School, Searcy High School, Lighthouse Charter School in Jacksonville, Dardanelle High School, Wonderview High School, Valley Springs High School, Cedarville School District and Watson Chapel School District attended the workshop.

Terri Freeny of Fort Smith Northside High School will be serving as a technology facilitator for her fellow faculty members this year. She had some computer programming experience, but she had never used a 3D printer.

She attended the workshop in an effort to learn how the 3D printer could be used in a classroom setting. She’ll then take that knowledge and share it with her fellow faculty members, teaching them the frameworks of 3D printing and how they can use it to engage with the students.

Freeny said teachers often think that adding technology that students don’t know slows down their progress. In fact it can improve the speed at which they learn if they are engaged in a subject through the use of technology, she said.

She plans to use a group of students from the school’s EAST program to learn how to use the school’s pair of 3D printers in its maker space. She’ll then have those students work with a group of teachers, telling them what they find interesting.

“I think I’m going to have to work backwards and work with students,” Freeny said. “Then I’ll bring in teachers to work with those students — all of them together. Let them see how excited the students are and learn that it’s OK for students to show you how to do something. It’s OK to learn from your students.”

Freeny’s first printed piece looked similar to a plastic whistle. She learned how to extract a hole in the center of the circular piece. Although it was something small, the feeling of accomplishment as she held the piece was much larger, she said.

“I just felt so fulfilled. I felt like I had really accomplished something. It took all day to create that one little thing, but sometimes it’s the small things that get us excited. I know my students would be excited to do something like that,” she said.

Seward, a 3D printer enthusiast and creator of several printers, said he was pleased with how well the workshop had gone. He said he had expected more problems than the teachers had experienced.

“3D printing is hard,” Seward said. “I think it’s a testament to these teachers that they all got up and running pretty quickly and producing prints they designed themselves. Usually if someone orders a printer and tries it at home, I’d budget a week before they were rolling if they were putting effort into it.”

Seward said one of the key aspects of the workshop was to help the teachers and their districts manage their expectations.

“The weakness I see with 3D printers is that people have the printer but they don’t have the expertise. So I’m hopefully sending some expertise back and they train their coworkers,” he said.

Seward said the other good thing about the workshop was the broad job duties the participants held. There were math and engineering teachers, information technology specialists and EAST specialists in the class. That demonstrated how a 3D printer can be used in many situations to teach as well as to solve problems.

“They’re all seeing different ways they can use it,” he said.

Two other professional training and curricular opportunities through Coding Arkansas’ Future are open for registration this summer. School districts interested in offering Essentials of Computer Programming Plus or Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles Plus in their district have the opportunity to partner with ASMSA for the courses.

Daniel Moix, ASMSA’s computer science education specialist, will lead a one-week professional development program on July 26-31 for Essentials of Computer Programming Plus. The program will help teachers from districts across the state prepare to teach the class in their district. Moix will be a facilitator for the teachers, providing curricular and professional support. This is the second year ASMSA is offering ECP Plus.

Moix will lead a three-day professional development program on July 24-26 for AP Computer Science Principles Plus. The program will help teachers from districts across the state prepare to teach the class in their district. Moix will be a facilitator for the teachers, providing curricular and professional support. This is the first year ASMSA is offering AP Computer Science Principles Plus.

For more information on these Coding Arkansas’ Future programs, visit asmsa.org/outreach/digital-learning.

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