Students in 6th grade used 3D modeling and 3D printing to create a movable type for their school’s 19th century Chandler & Price printing press.

Ian Klapper is a teacher with some interesting methods. He gave his 6th graders a chance to use 3D printing to create movable type for the school’s old-fashioned printing presses.

He explains: “This assignment would be an extension of the work for their “Job”. City and Country School was founded on the belief that children learn best when they are engaged in real-life situations that are important to them.”

Students were already familiar with modern technologies and have even used Adobe Illustrator to design poems for the school’s literary magazine. Klapper says: “In the past, we have exported the files to a service bureau which created printing plates for the presses. The whole project usually takes a few weeks.”

Instead, he decided to quicken up this process by using 3D printing. Klapper, along with two other teachers and a printing assistant set about bringing this 3D printing press project to life. The school also borrowed an Ultimaker 2+.

The Printing Press Project in Action

With this project, students learned about typography and were tasked with deciding which typeface would work best with their movable type.

They also learned about free online modeling programs, Tinkercad as well as Adobe Illustrator. After finalizing the best designs, the students printed the type. They used both an Ultimaker and MakerBot 3D printer to test out how well they worked.

However, Klapper and his students required many iterations to get the printing height just right. After perfecting this, they were ready for printing, but again, encountered a few problems. Klapper explains: “The children and I ultimately decided that the best results came from printing the type all at once.”

Overall, this project was a huge success. “Multiple skills, both virtual and hands-on, were developed. The students were introduced to the basics of typography, 3D design, 3D printing and how to use a 19th-century printing press.” Klapper continues: “The movable type created by this project will be in use, leaving a legacy for years to come at our school.”

This project just proves that mixing old technologies with brand new ones can result in some exciting results. Want to read more about the trials of Klapper’s project? Head over to the Ultimaker blog to read his full account.

Source: Ultimaker