3D Printing in the Computing Curriculum Guide

3D printing technology has many applications across the curriculum and provide a tool to increase pupil engagement and attainment. In particular, it provides great potential for enhancing teaching and learning throughout the computing curriculum for England, although most of the applications and ideas are also relevant for other computing curricula.

Access to 3D printing technology can provide the following benefits:

• Assisting students in developing many computational thinking skills.
• Developing creativity and skills in using a variety of software and hardware.
• Allowing students to code and then 3D print their own artifacts.
• Enabling physical computing by combining 3D printing with programmable devices, providing opportunities for students to code and develop meaningful products.

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This guide has been produced by The CREATE Education Project to highlight some of the potential uses and applications of 3D printing technology in the computing curriculum and to provide inspiration, ideas and links to resources to get you started.

The guide covers:

• The 3D printing process and how it applies to computing, including software information.
• Computational thinking concepts and approaches developed through 3D modelling and 3D printing.
• Opportunities for enhancing the Teach Computing Curriculum with 3D printing.
• A 3D printing unit of work.
• Integrating coding with 3D printing.
• Projects and ideas for enabling physical computing.
• Further inspiration, resources and ideas.

We have published the guide as a handy downloadable PDF, this will allow you to print it out and have it by your side as a valuable reference. The guide contains lots of useful links to specific further information and resources. If you have the PDF open on your computer or device, you can click on the links directly from the PDF to open the resources.