3D Printing for First-Timers - Monsters Under Construction

For a long time, I've been 3D printer-adjacent; I've been fortunate to work alongside instructional technology and STEAM personnel on campuses, so I knew what 3D printers could do and encouraged students to use 3D printing as independent project formats, but I hadn't managed the machines or designs myself. I started at a new campus this year, and I knew I didn't want the brand new 3D printer to be sitting in a closet, so I went to some hands-on training, built a lesson, and jumped in with both feet. I hope this post can offer some tips and learning to others out there in similar situations!

The Lesson
I worked with 15 different 8th grade ELA classes in the library - about half were advanced, and half were "on level." There were about 20 - 30 students per class, and I have nine tables with 4 chairs each in the teaching/presentation area of my library.

I started with a read-aloud that was only loosely connected to monsters (I'll take any excuse to share a fun picture book): Alex Willan's Unicorns Are the Worst. The text talks about some characteristics of unicorns, as well as goblins and dragons, so we would be focusing on designing our own original monsters.

I'm new to my campus this year, so not all my 8th graders have buy-in. While some clearly enjoyed the book, with other classes the read-aloud definitely felt like a stand-up comic routine in an empty room. I remained undeterred - I know they were enjoying it on the inside!

I prepared index cards with different traits on them - I took time to create unique traits for every table in every class, although there were plenty of synonyms (anxious, worried; joyful, jubilant). I chose more straightforward adjectives for the on-level classes - things like fearful or popular or vain - and more abstract ideas for the advanced classes, including charismatic, analytical, and obnoxious. I gave one card to each table, and since I prepped nine cards per class and all classes have fewer than 36 students, there were always extras - so I held up two cards and each table had some choice about which word they would focus on. Just as the book described some traits of unicorns and goblins, I invited them to consider what facial expressions, body language, and props might be associated with each trait - they took about two minutes to consider and discuss this.

The read-aloud, card passing, and trait brainstorming took about 12 - 15 minutes of class time. Next, we proceeded to the design phase - our campus has access to 1:1 devices and the TinkerCad program, so students accessed that through a class I'd set up for them within the software.

Designing
If you have done 3D printing before, you will know that setting them loose to design monsters matching traits is fraught with issues - but I didn't know any of those issues yet. I only knew to caution them to keep the design on the build plate within the box constraints, to scale the final size down so the print wouldn't take too long, and to focus on shape rather than color, since we would only be printing in single colors.

I also did not give them filament color options, and I was really glad I didn't even try to accommodate that later on. I actually bought different colored thumb drives, intending to collect different designs and saving all the red prints to the red drive, and the yellow prints to the yellow drive, but I ended up just printing everything in one color until I ran out and changed the filament. It was much simpler!

Some of the 3D Print Designed Monsters in Progress:

Students had about 10 minutes to work on individual designs using TinkerCad, which I didn't have any real expertise in using. There are some useful things to know about how to view or scale the design, or how to import existing shapes and figures, but they are reasonably intuitive and students were able to figure out how to create designs they envisioned, even if they needed help from me or someone else at their table. They were highly engaged in this process - every student, in every class.

I did have students who had experience with 3D printing and designing at home or in STEM classes, and some of them preferred to work with different software they could access - that was fine as long as the end product was an STL file.

After some individual design work time, I invited them to stand up and do a gallery walk of the designs so far, with the index card trait clearly visible on the table and the computers propped open to show the designs in progress. This was helpful - students talked together to try to make different design features work, and they were happy to get back to improving their designs after a short tour.

I had planned for students to compare the designs at each table and choose one design per table (and per trait) to move forward and develop together, but after I tried this with a class, the focus of most of the non-designers fell apart - they didn't keep discussing and collaborating and building the best parts of each monster. So for the remaining classes, I opted to invite them all to keep revising and improving their individual designs (this meant I had multiple file variations on the same trait for some traits). They only had another 5-8 minutes for this stage.

When it was time to save the design, I had them name the monsters by the trait on the index card - so, for example, the file was Energetic.STL or Friendly.STL, and this was very helpful later when I printed them.

Each student downloaded the monster file to the computer, and then shared it with me via Google Classroom assignment. This was imperfect on my end later, but quick for them during the lesson.

I made no promises about deadlines or distribution - I just said they could look forward to seeing their designs printed in a monster gallery in our front display case this spring. That was also very helpful - if I had to print them all for a grade or for an event, it would have been incredibly stressful and much less fun. At this point, their lesson ended, and my learning about the printing process started.

This 3D printed frog is one of the sample designs pre-loaded on the Dremel 3D printer. Running those practice prints was a good place to start.

The 3D Printing Process

All I had ever done before this assignment was print the designs that came pre-loaded on the printer, and run one simple test print from a student who took a STEM class that did a 3D printing unit. Everything else was brand new to me.

In order to actually view what the students designed, I could look in TinkerCad and download there, which would have been much faster than what I did - which was to use Google Classroom. I would open a student's submitted assignment (but I couldn't view the design), download it, then import it to the Dremel slicing software (we have Dremel 3D printers in our district), and then view it and decide if it should move forward to be printed. If so, I used the software to slice the design and saved it to the thumb drive with the name of the trait.

One reason I didn't print some designs was because they didn't fit the character trait in any way I could discern - although I did need to look closely - that little diligent guy's t-shirt says "I heart work," in addition to his glasses, briefcase, and overall Arthur-looking earnestness. For our monster gallery, I wanted viewers to be able to get the connection pretty quickly.

I did accept a pretty loose translation of the "monster" concept - I printed a simple pair of glasses to represent critical, and an elephant with a crown to represent "royal."

Another reason not to print some designs was that they were too similar to ones I'd already printed, even if the traits were different - many students used the pre-loaded shapes in TinkerCad to create their monsters and props, so we had lots of crowns and wings and footballs.

And then there were the floating elements designs:

Charismatic

Confident

I really appreciated both of these designs - I can see how nature and the animals are responding to the charismatic monster, and the confident Fonzie monster is similarly fun and distinctive.

However, the 3D printer obeys the laws of gravity, so it prints the bottom part of the design on the flat build plate, and then the plate lowers slowly as the printer works on the middle and top parts of the design.

In order to print things that are high up but not low, the printer will generate supports - structures which allow the design to appear on the build plate, but which have to be removed later.

I knew nothing - nothing about supports.
Let's just take this example:

Here is the student's design for an emotional monster - it's memorable and it fits the trait

I printed this vertically - just as designed, and the printer generated all those corrugated cardboard looking supports underneath. I thought I could remove them with my fingers. He's already lost an eyebrow by this point.

I'm no quitter. I was really pretty sure if I pulled hard enough, I could make this happen. The main supports mostly held and the monster lost an eyeball.

It turns out that there are special kinds of tools that are really helpful for removing supports, including small flat files and specific small pliers - but I didn't have any of those when I started.

It also turns out that my slicing software lets me scale down and rotate designs - so I re-printed this monster on his back, removing the need for all those original vertical supports. There were still some supports involved, but having the right removal tools helped a lot. There really were lightning bolt legs in this design - and the second time, they were visible.

He stands up vertically balanced on that one leg - but he's very difficult to photograph well

Here are a few more of our 3D printed monsters:

Musical

Livid

Magical (front view)
The white bits on the feet are from the glue that adheres the build to the build plate - this rinses off easily

Magical (reverse view)

The student designs were created the last week in February, and I'm still printing in mid-April, although there are dozens of completed designs so far. Of course I'm not printing non-stop - we had spring break, and a major fundraiser, and some days have been just too busy to reset the printer and keep those projects running. It's not an ideal project for an entire grade level in a huge school, but I've tried to print the ones that are most distinctive and ones for students who are most invested in them.

The first few printed designs in our 8th grade monster gallery display

Here are some benefits from this 3D print project in the library:
1) I really underestimated how impressed visitors would be when they see our monster gallery - or even the 3D printer running. From board members to colleagues to parent volunteers, this project really amplified the idea that the library is more than a place where we scan and shelve books - we create things in this space. Of course, the students enjoy looking at their own work, and students in other grades are quick to ask about it (and everyone seems to like watching the printer run).

2) I have a student who is not always invested in school, but he is an absolute expert in 3D printing (he was in my very last class on the last day of this lesson cycle - so I discovered that late). He assisted with my genuine questions about slicer settings, printer settings, design options and support removal, and he could not have been more helpful. I think it was great for him to be an expert and appreciated as such in a school setting - he now visits the library often to chat, or remove some supports on a print for me, or to share some of his designs. I didn't know that this student would make this connection, but I hoped this would happen with some of my students. I want everyone to love reading (and writing), but I know many students love lots of other things, too. It's great to get them in the door to talk and build together, and my hope is that along with that positive association with being in the library, the book love and book projects and opportunities will be more at the forefront and more visible to more students because of this outreach with other types of projects.

3) Not all of our students have access to STEM classes, so I love giving them at least some rudimentary experience - even 15 or 20 minutes - with some basic software on a low-risk project. They have an invitation to explore something and take it further if they choose, and they might not have had that opportunity if I hadn't tried this in class with everyone. I also think we don't often support engineering thinking in early years in most schools - and this is from someone who has been doing design challenges with toothpicks and index cards for decades now. There are interesting career possibilities for students with these design skills, but if they don't see or try these things, they might never take those classes or consider those fields. It's not that it's important to design a monster inspired by a storybook - it's your experience with digital design software, and your capacity for trying and succeeding with new things that might move you to learn more that matters.

4) In addition to the 3D print designs, students were exploring vocabulary through the character trait, discussing and making decisions around design elements appropriate to a given character trait, exposed to the fun (and vocabulary and message and skillful writing) of a picture book, and revising and editing their designs (size, shape, content) to better meet criteria standards. That's a lot of skill practice value in one class visit, and the best part is that the students are the ones doing almost everything throughout the lesson.

5) It's always good to be a learner, and teachers can always seek out new learning. Making mistakes and being new at something is humbling and exciting - sometimes in the same minute. I am not great with tools or spatial awareness, so it was super satisfying to get these projects printed successfully, imperfections and all. It also reminded me (again) how so many things we ask of students are new to them, and how vulnerable and messy that process is.

An imaginative monster

Here are some things I learned that might help other teachers or librarians with early 3D printing projects:

1) Supplies
My Dremel printer came with two build plates, two spatulas (for removing printed objects from the build plate), 2 glue sticks (for use on the build plate to anchor the early part of the print), and some packages of filament. After I started printing student designs, I bought a simple kit for about $20 like the one below, but the most useful pieces to me so far have been those special pliers (right) and two different sized flat pry bars - one like the one pictured second from bottom, and one even smaller.

Additionally, I needed some storage space for the tools, filament, and completed builds, and work space - for the printer itself, but also to dig at the build plate with the spatula, to wipe the glue from the used build plate, and to remove the supports.
The supports are easiest to remove when they're still warm and come right off the printer, but my schedule doesn't always align with the print timer. I brought in a hair dryer to add a little heat to supports that are tougher to remove, and it does seem to help.
Sometimes the force required to remove the supports results in accidental breakage, so I also keep a glue gun handy for repairs. I don't think this is a heavy-duty solution for 3D printed objects that are meant to be handled regularly, but for objects meant to be decorative or displayed in a gallery, it's worked pretty well.

A smaller print on the build plate, just out of the printer and ready to be scraped off the base.

2) Designs
I'm glad I jumped right in to try 3D prints, even though I didn't master designing - I'm glad I didn't just leave the tool in a supply closet. But if I had been able to play with designs and print them, I would have known how to discourage students from design types that were less likely to work.

Ideally, the students would be able to design products, print them, and then modify the designs based on the results. But there are limitations - I have one printer, 1200 students, and limited access to my time with them, much less the machine. Plus, I don't want to use a lot of filament on things that won't work for that many students, although for a smaller group it would be a great way for them to have hands-on experience with the whole process, including revision.

What I can say to very new 3D print facilitators is - avoid those very fragile wings and tiny crown designs, and anything thin and on its own (a sword or spire, for example) will be difficult to retain without breaking and re-gluing. Gravity again - small round feet don't support heavy mid-sections and large hatted heads. And while the 3D element is especially fun, practicing on what is essentially a 2D design - like a flat rectangular or long oval keychain with a select word - would be a friendlier warm-up than jumping from printing the built-in printer designs to novice student designs.

An Overwhelmed "monster"

3) Work Flow
I'm so glad I didn't start printing with a big event plan or grading requirement - casually printing and then removing supports as time allows and gradually adding to our display has been a huge gift in terms of learning without pressure when things go wrong.

A colleague has a Google Form set up (she generously shared it and I modified it for my campus) to accept incoming print designs from students. These would be just for fun designs - not tied to a specific library or other curricular activity. I haven't activated it yet, but I think it's a good way to reach out to students who are interested in engineering design and don't have access to their own prints. The form basically emphasizes that the print will happen on the librarian's time, and that if there are major design flaws, she will email the student - not fix the design. The form does have a color preference for prints, so that you can print a batch of blue prints, and then a batch of silver, for example, without having to work in exact receiving order and swap the filament colors over and over. My friend lifts the Google Form information into spreadsheet tabs for each color and notes the print/complete progress so that students can view it if they're curious. On this form, students are asked to save their file designs according to a last name, first name, single descriptor, color convention (SmithLauraDragonRed).

After I printed each design, supports or no - I used small sticky notes for the monster character trait and kept those sticky notes with the design the whole stage - even if the pieces had to be dropped into a baggy with a note to heat or glue them. I could make my gallery signs a lot more impressive, but for the short term, those quickly jotted sticky notes communicate the purpose from print to display.

Early stages of a dragon on the 3D printer

There's so much more I don't know yet - I didn't adjust many of the default slicing or printer settings, I didn't experiment with multi-color prints, and as of this writing I'm printing the first articulated model - designed by my student expert. I hope to be more knowledgeable at this time next year, but for now, I'm happy with the leap in understanding I built this year. If you're a teacher with access to a 3D printer and you're considering giving it a try, I would recommend jumping in - there's a big community with how-to videos and a large knowledge base, and it's a great connection to the student makers and engineers on your campus.