3D Printing
New Construction Kits Incorporate 3D Printing
A major 3D printer maker and an educational game
designer are
teaming up to deliver a construction kit designed to help young children
develop
an interest in engineering.
ThinkFun
has created the Maker
Studio Construction Set that
will let children 7 and older, their parents and teachers work together
to turn
ordinary household items into engineering-inspired machines. The sets
will be distributed
at no cost via MakerBot's
Thingiverse,
a 3D design community for discovering,
making and sharing 3D printable objects.
The construction sets will contain gears, winches,
propellers and
3D-printable parts like connectors, wheels, rods, hubcaps, spools and
hole
punches. The combination of the two types of objects will allow children
to
turn things like cereal boxes or soda cans into kinetic machines.
Assembly diagrams and instructions can be downloaded
from
Thingiverse, as can 10 open-ended challenges that are intended to
enhance
problem-solving skills.
Children, in conjunction with their parents and
teachers or on
their own, can work through the challenges, follow the instructions or
use
their imaginations to create their own objects.
"These new construction sets use 3D printing to
stimulate a
child's imagination and build important cognitive skills," said MakerBot
CEO
Jonathan Jaglom. "The open-ended, creative play fosters child
development
through self-expression and problem solving."
ThinkFun and MakerBot have also launched the "Kids
Make It
Challenge" to share their creations and compete for prizes and the title
of
Master Maker. To enter, children or their parents simply post a photo or
video
of their Maker Studio creation on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag
#KidsMakeIt by July 14. Formal contest rules are on the #Kids Make It
Challenge Page and winners will be announced July 28
on the MakerBot
blog.
"Kids are inherently creative, and it's amazing to
see how
imaginative they can be when given the opportunity to exercise their
minds and
ingenuity with smart toys like Maker Studio," said ThinkFun Co-founder
Bill
Ritchie.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.