3D Printing Workshop Series Spring 2024 - Powered by Student Makers Non-profit

My name is Dilan Mehta and I am a Junior at Hinsdale Central High School in Illinois. As the curriculum director and lead instructor of the 2024 Spring 3D Printing Workshop Series funded and organized by Student Makers, a non-profit organization out of UC Berkeley dedicated to providing maker education to middle school and high school students in the United States, I wanted share our program with the Instructables community:

Starting this February, Student Makers is offering a 3D Printing Workshop Series completely FREE of charge. It will dive deep into 3D Printing and design through hands-on projects in Tinkercad and Fusion 360, the cutting edge CAD (computer-aided design) software used by professionals around the world. This is an 8-week program on Sundays starting on 2/18/24 from 2 to 4 pm PT/4 to 6 pm CT/5 to 7 pm ET (please convert to your local time zone) available to students in grades 6 through 12. Throughout the course, students will create 8 milestone projects, which will be 3D printed and mailed to them. Going on our fifth iteration of this program, our instructors are experienced student makers and teachers. We will take up to 20 students.

Apply here by 2/10/24: Application Form for 2024 3D Printing Workshop Series

For more details, please see our website page or send me an email at dilanrm06@gmail.com. Want to support this program? Please share this opportunity with anyone you know who may be interested.

In August of 2020, I wrote my first Instructable for the Tinkercad student design contest. After submitting my project, "Rubik's Cube with a Twist," I received a DM on Instructables from a Berkeley student named Anthony Tan, the founder of a non-profit organization called Maker Hub Club (now Student Makers), inviting to me to join his platform. Student Makers is a nationwide community of middle school, high school, and college students on a journey to learn through making hands-on projects. I eagerly accepted and soon enrolled as a student in the Maker Hub Club 2020 fall 3D Printing Workshop Series, a 10-week course on 3D printing and design taught by fellow members of the non-profit. Although I had plenty of experience with 3D printing and design in Tinkercad, I had limited experience with Fusion 360, a gap in my knowledge that this program filled. Just a year later, I took over the workshop series as its lead instructor. Alongside two other instructors, we ran two successful semesters of the course in fall 2021 and spring 2022.

The main necessities of our workshop series are funding and experienced instructors. All of the expenses associated with the workshop series are reimbursed by Student Makers, which draws its funding from a variety of patrons.

Each semester of the program typically costs a few hundred dollars to cover the cost of 3D printing and mailing the students' designs to them. Although the price of 3D printing materials (filament) is relatively low, the shipping charges tend to make up the most significant portion of the expense. Student Makers was donated a 3D printer several years ago, which has been used ever since to create student designs. Another need provided by Student Makers is Google Meets Plus, which enables meetings to go past one hour and other important features. This is essential for instructor team meetings as well as the actual workshop sessions. As a special surprise for the students, we have even been able to buy a 3D printer for the winner of the Week 8 Student Design Contest in the past (Fall 2020 and Spring 2022), although this depends on the funding Student Makers has available at the time.

In addition to funding, the workshop series relies on its supply of experienced instructors. Our model for onboarding instructors is to draw from the pool of our most qualified former students. Our instructor team is shown below for the upcoming 2024 spring semester:

• Dilan Mehta is currently a junior at Hinsdale Central High School in Illinois. Some projects he has made on his 3D printer are functional Rubik’s Cubes, a mini skateboard, ear speculums for ENT, and clips to hold up his grandpa’s curtains. With Student Makers, Dilan presented at the 2020 East Bay Mini Maker Faire, created and distributed nearly 500 face shields for health care workers via Makers for COVID-19 nonprofit, and became the Student Makers' Director of Curriculum and 3D printing Workshop Series Lead Instructor. To further explore his interests in the field of engineering, Dilan worked under an internship at MxD for six weeks during the summer of 2023.
• Pradyota Phaneesh is a high school senior at Round Rock High School. He is a dedicated student passionate about 3D printing and astronomy. As an instructor of the workshop series, he shares his 3D printing expertise. Additionally, he works part-time at Kumon North America Inc., helping students excel academically. Pradyota also volunteers with SEWA International, focusing on community service, including supporting homeless pregnant women. He's also written a research paper on Dark Matter Distribution and is a NASA High School Aerospace Scholars program participant with expertise in spacecraft design and 3D modeling.
• Parsa Ansari is 18 years old and a freshman at UC Berkeley. He has been 3D printing for 5 years, using both Tinkercad and Fusion 360. He has won 6 Instructables design contests, 2 of which have been grand prizes! He is also an Autodesk Certified Associate in CAD for Mechanical Design. His favorite part about 3D printing is bringing his creations to life; with the right tools and resources, there is truly no limit to what you can create.
• Rohan Nagale is a sophomore at Lyons Township High School in Illinois. He has been interested in 3D printing for many years, ever since receiving one for Christmas in 5th grade. Rohan completed the 3D Printing Student Makers Workshop Series in 2021, and was inspired to become one of the instructors. Last year, he shared his 3D printing knowledge and experiences with a school in a rural village in India via Google Meets along with Dilan and Pradyota. Rohan also participates in multiple extracurriculars including robotics, math, MUN, and volunteering at a local food pantry. 

After securing the necessary funding and instructors, we are ready to begin planning the workshop series. The backbone of the workshop series is its curriculum, so this is typically the first order of business although there is still plenty of time for revising it. This includes a writing out a general curriculum outline, planning out the Milestone projects, creating the Google Slides presentations, and creating the interactive games (i.e. Kahoot, Blooket, Jeopardy). To battle the inevitable boredom of online learning, we structure our curriculum around the hands-on milestone projects. Shown below is our curriculum outline for the upcoming spring semester:

• Week 1 - The Basics in Tinkercad
• Week 2 - The Sketch Menu in Fusion 360
• Week 3 - The Create Menu in Fusion 360
• Week 4 - The Construct Menu in Fusion 360
• Week 5 - The Modify Menu in Fusion 360
• Week 6 - The Workspaces in Fusion 360
• Week 7 - The Student Design Contest
• Week 8 - Student Design Contest Results and Recap

Before I took over as the lead instructor, the curriculum split time more evenly between Tinkercad and Fusion 360, spent more time on general information about 3D printing, and was a 10-week course instead of 8 weeks. We have moved away from Tinkercad since Fusion 360 is a professional software with more advanced capabilities. In addition, many students tend to have a decent amount of prior experience with Tinkercad. We have also shifted away from teaching too much general information about 3D printing because we have found that the students become bored with this seemingly trivial information. Since the class is online, we cannot offer any hands-on experience with a 3D printer other than a live demonstration through a camera. Therefore, although facts about 3D printing are interesting like types of materials, types of 3D printers, and applications of 3D printing, we have incorporated these topics through interactive games and quick slides rather than as core parts of the curriculum. This has shifted the focus of our "3D Printing" Workshop Series towards 3D design, which has even made us consider renaming it accordingly. The final move we made in the past two semesters was shifting the length of the workshop series from 10 to 8 weeks since we have been able to move along more efficiently with our new curriculum. We have also typically been able to end our workshop sessions early.

Along with planning out the curriculum, we plan for about one milestone project per week for the students to work on. These projects give the student a specific design task that demonstrate the key concept learned that week. However, students are also free to design whatever they want instead as long as their idea demonstrates the concepts. All designs shown in this Instructable are student-created milestone projects! Shown below were the milestone projects from the 2022 Spring semester:

• Milestone 1 - keychain in Tinkercad to demonstrate basic Tinkercad design
• Milestone 2 - 2D logo in Fusion 360 to demonstrate sketch menu
• Milestone 3 - 3D logo in Fusion 360 to demonstrate extrude tool
• Milestone 4 - vase in Fusion 360 to demonstrate revolve tool
• Milestone 5 - pencil holder in Fusion 360 to demonstrate construct menu and loft tool
• Milestone 6 - coffee mug in fusion 360 to demonstrate modify menu
• Milestone 7 - case or moving parts to demonstrate tolerance
• Milestone 8 - anything to be entered into student design contest
• For the Spring 2024 semester, the Student Design contest is TBD as we may instead push students to enter their projects in Instructables contests.

After creating the rough outline of the curriculum and milestone projects comes the most time-consuming stage - putting together the Google Slides presentations. Due to the restructuring of the our curriculum, there are almost no traces left of the "old slides" from before I was the lead instructor. Therefore, our instructors have put hours and hours into creating the new presentations. Although we have put an obsessively tedious level of thought into presenting the information in a logical and aesthetic way, we are constantly adapting our slides to find the best way to explain difficult ideas. To make our slides "pop," we use templates from Slides Carnival.

The final component of our curriculum is creating interactive games like Kahoot, Blooket, and Jeopardy. These games keep the class engaging and fun.

Once we finish the curriculum, we begin working on the materials for outreach. We are currently at this stage for the upcoming workshop series. This includes creating a Google Form to sign up, updating the website page using Wix, designing a flier using Canva, and drafting an email template for our instructors to share the program. We try to keep our application form simple to encourage students to sign up. Although it is titled an "application," we typically take all students who fill out the form. We also decide on the specific class dates at this stage based on teacher availability and any major holidays/breaks that may conflict with our schedule.

Since outreach is the aspect of our workshop series at which we have struggled the most since I have been the lead instructor, we are constantly looking for ways to reach new audiences, which is why I am writing this Instructable - so please share :) For the past two iterations of the workshops series, we have struggled with numbers. In the Fall of 2021, we had just under ten sign ups, but only four students actually showed up consistently to classes. The following semester, that number improved to six. We considered adding an admission fee for the upcoming semester not necessarily because we needed funding, but because we wanted to legitimize our workshop series and ensure our registrants' commitment to it. However, we decided against this move as it would actually risk discouraging students from signing up. Instead of trying to market our workshop series in a new way, I believe that we need to spread it to more people and by using new platforms, such as Instructables. Some of the main ways we typically reach out to people are through emailing middle school/high school teachers, mass student mailing lists, and newsletter authors, as well as using the Student Makers platform. Another highly effective method of outreach are facebook posts and texting to reach specific family/friends who are more likely to be interested.

Although this may be a difficult goal to reach, we are shooting for a class of 20 this spring. So far, we have 5 sign ups in the first weekend that the application has been available!

Once we pass the registration deadline, we set up our Google Classroom, Tinkercad Classroom, and create the link for the first meeting. The Google and Tinkercad Classrooms are vital for the workshop so that we can view and receive student work, which helps us document their impressive projects and 3D print them. Tinkercad Classroom enables us to view student designs in real time. We use Google Classroom so that students are able to submit their Fusion 360 designs to us. After converting the responses we receive from the Google Form into an Excel spreadsheet, we send out a welcome email with all of the necessary information to parents and students. This upcoming semester, we have requested phone numbers as well in the Google Form in case students miss our email. We are also considering using the Remind app.

Before every class session, we have an instructors meeting for thirty minutes to an hour to review the content we need to go over that day and make sure everything is ready to go. As the workshop series continues, we typically give the students one 10-minute break per class session. We also try to send out summary emails to parents to let them know what we are doing in class. For students who miss class, we work one-on-one with them in breakout rooms and post important demo videos. All class sessions are recorded. We recap old class sessions at the beginning of class. Interactive games like Kahoot, Blooket, and Jeopardy are played at the end of each class if there is extra time.

1. Instructor Introductions - Instructors share about their age, school, state, 3D printing experience, and other interests.
2. Student Introductions - Students share their name, grade, state, any experience they have with 3D printing, and one interesting fact about themselves!
3. Overview - We preview what we will be doing for the next 8 weeks and make sure all students have joined the Google Classroom.
4. Defining 3D Printing - 3D printing, a.k.a. additive manufacturing, is a creation process where you start with nothing and add material to form a specific shapes in layers over time. 3D printing is a four step process: design, slice, 3D print, post-process.
5. Applications of 3D Printing - 3D printing is a truly revolutionary technology with a variety of unique applications from creating houses, organs, and even chocolate!
6. Tinkercad - Tinkercad is a beginner friendly CAD (computer-aided design) software based on basic shapes. Students join our Tinkercad classrom and follow along with our highly detailed demonstration, which covers views, shapes, manipulating objects, the tools bar, and importing/exporting designs. In Tinkercad, the viewcube allows users to navigate the workspace. The "ground" is called the workplane. Tinkercad features a vast menu of 3D shapes which can be resized, rotated, and moved. Shapes can also be turned into holes, meaning that they subtract from other shapes when the group tool is applied. It is important to note that grouping order matters when combining more than two shapes. Once finished, Tinkercad allows users to export their models as .stl files for uses like 3D printing.
7. Milestone 1 - Students design their own keychain in Tinkercad.
8. Tolerances and extra challenge - It is very important to consider the gap between interlocking or moving parts in 3D design, called tolerance, to acheive the correct amount of friction. While interlocking parts may have tighter tolerances, wider clearance may be required for moving parts. Students are then given the opportunity to design interlocking/moving parts in Tinkercad as an optional challenge if they have finished their keychains.

1. Milestone 1 - Students submit their designs to Google Classroom.
2. Fusion 360 Introduction - Fusion 360 is a more complex CAD software involving turning 2D sketches into 3D objects.
3. Downloading Fusion 360 - We walk students through the tedious process of downloading the Fusion 360 one-year free trial. The trial can be renewed once expired.
4. Fusion 360 Introduction - The basic Fusion 360 design process typically consists of three steps: creating a 2D sketch, adding a third dimension, and finally modifying the resulting 3D body. In Fusion 360, tools are sorted into menus, which are sorted into workspaces. At the bottom of the screen, Fusion 360 keeps a timeline of every tool used, making it simple to backtrack.
5. Fusion 360 Vocabulary - A sketch is a 2D element of a design - the focus of week 2. A body is a 3D element of a design. A construction plane is a 2D reference object. An axis is a 1D reference object. A point is a 0D reference object.
6. Sketch Menu - Students follow along as we go through a detailed demo on using the sketch menu to create and modify 2D shapes. In order to access the sketch menu, users must click "create sketch" and then select a plane for the sketch. The create submenu under the sketch menu allows users to draw a variety of different 2D shapes. The modify submenu under the sketch menu allows users to make changes/additions to these shapes. The constraints menu allows users to fix their sketch objects into place. Without constraints, sketch objects are not definitively placed and can be moved around freely. Unlike Tinkercad, Fusion 360 does not require dimensions when drawing sketches. This enables users to more conveniently and precisely edit shape and size using constraints.
7. Milestone 2 - Students sketch their own 2D logos and submit a screenshot to Google Classroom once finished.

1. The Extrude Tool - Students are given a detailed demonstration of how the extrude tool works. The extrude tool is the most fundamental option under the Create menu. It adds a third dimension to an enclosed sketch object, called a profile, by extending it linearly. After selecting a profile and clicking on the extrude tool, a menu pops up allowing users to choose the specifications of the command. The most important specification is the operation, which can be set to join, cut, intersect, or new body, which dictate how the extrusion will interact with overlapping bodies. The join operation combines the extrusion with the body, the cut operation subtracts from the body, the intersect operation results in only the overlapping area, and the new body operation allows the extrusion to be unaffected by the body. Another specification is the direction in which the profile is extruded.
2. Milestone 3 - Students extrude their 2D logo sketches into a 3D body and submit a .f3d file to Google Classroom.
3. Extruding Faces - Flat faces of pre-existing bodies can also be used as profiles for extrusion.
4. The Loft Tool - Students are given a detailed demonstration of how the loft tool works. The loft tool creates a 3D body by transitioning between two or more sketches on different planes.
5. The Sweep Tool - Students are given a detailed demonstration of how the sweep tool works. The sweep tool creates a 3D body by extruding a sketch along a specific path rather than linearly.
6. The Revolve Tool - Students are given a detailed demonstration of how the revolve tool works. The revolve tool creates a 3D body by rotating a sketch around an axis.
7. Other Create Menu Tools - The emboss tool inlays/extrudes a sketch onto a face, which could be curved. The hole tool creates a drilled hole in an object. The shapes tool allows users to drag and drop shapes Tinkercad-style. The mirror tool reflects a body over a plane.
8. Milestone 4 - Students design a vase by creating a curved outline and revolving it around an axis and submit a .f3d file to Google Classroom once finished.
9. Filament in 3D Printing - Filament is a spool of material (usually plastic) that is the basis for 3D printing. There are many different types of filaments, which have unique applications such as PLA, ABS, PETG, and TPE.

1. Design Time - Students work on their milestone projects.
2. The Construct Menu - Students are given a detailed demonstration of how the Construct Menu works. The Construct Menu enables users to create reference objects like planes, axes, and points in a variety of ways. This is vital to using the loft tool since the loft tool requires sketches on multiple planes.
3. Milestone 5 - Students design a pencil holder using the loft tool and the construct menu and submit a .f3D file to Google Classroom.
4. 3D Printer Demo - By turning on my camera, I show the students what a 3D printer looks like, how it works, and a print in action.
5. Post-Processing - Post-processing, which involves finishing a model off the 3D printer, is the final step in the additive manufacturing process. Sandpaper, files, and rotary tools are used for smoothing the model's surface. Priming, painting, and acetone baths are used for added smoothness and/or a glossy finish.

1. Modify Menu - Students are given a detailed demonstration of each tool under the modify menu. The modify menu allows users to edit, combine, resize, and make other changes to bodies.
2. Fillet tool - The fillet tool rounds out selected edges.
3. Chamfer tool - The chamfer tool flattens out selected edges.
4. Shell tool - The shell tool hollows out a selected face.
5. Offset face - The offset face tool pulls faces (can be curved) outward or pushes them inwards.
6. Milestone 6 - Students design a coffee mug using a variety of tools covered throughout the course and submit a .f3d file to Google Classroom. There are many ways to accomplish this task.
7. Slicing Software - Students are given a quick overview of how slicing software works. Slicing software/slicer is a tool that turns a digital 3D design into a set of instructions that the 3D printer can understand and follow to print the model using a variety of inputs from the user. In order to understand slicing software, it is important to understand the different file types in 3D printing. Design files, which store the shape and size of a model include .stl, .obj, and .f3d. File types like .gcode and .3mf store not only the shape of the model, but a set of instructions that tell a machine (a 3D printer in this case) how to create the physical object in a specific way. Once again, slicing software converts design files to these instructions. However, in order to do so, slicing software needs inputs to determine the properties of the model. Changing these settings can have important positive and negative consequences on the result. Here are the most basic slicer settings:
8. Layer height - controls the smoothness of the product
9. Infill density - controls the strength of the model
10. Temperature - controls the temperature of the nozzle and the bed (based on material)
11. Support material - allows overhangs to be printed
12. Build plate adhesion - can help the print stick to the bed

1. Inspect Menu - The inspect menu allows users to look at unique properties of their designs. The measure tool allows users to find distances, angles, and other specific metrics. The section analysis tool allows users to look at a cross section of the model.
2. Importing in Fusion 360 - In order to conveniently import into Fusion 360, .f3d, .stp, or .step files are required. These files can be obtained from the internet on websites like grabcad.com.
3. Other Workspaces in Fusion 360 - We give students a brief overview of the other workspaces outside of the design workspace. So far, we have only dealt with the design workspace in the Fusion 360 interface, however, there are many others with unique abilities. The form workspace allows users to work with curved features more easily through bypassing usual constraints. The render workspace allows users to view and save a realistic image of the model with lighting, shadows, a background, shading, and perspective. The animation workspace allows users to create a video showing an explosion of the parts of an assembly, moving parts in action, and different views of an object.
4. Milestone 7 - Students have two choices:
5. Students choose a .stp/.step/.f3d file from the internet, design a model based on it and submit a render to Google Classroom if they have time. For example, students can download a model of a phone and create a case for it.
6. Students design moving parts and submit an animation to Google Classroom if they have time. For example, students can design a car that rolls. Students are reminded about the important factors related to tolerances from the first class session.
7. Types of 3D Printers - All information covered so far about 3D printing has been about FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers, which deposit melted material through a nozzle onto a bed in layers in to form objects over time. However, there are countless other 3D printing technologies. Some of the most common types are SLA printers, which exhibit higher detail and precision using a UV laser to chemically solidify liquid resin and SLS printers, which are used for industrial mass production.

1. Design Time - Students finish and submit their Milestone 7 projects.
2. The Student Design Contest - Students are introduced to the student design contest. In this contest, students can create anything they want and must write up a brief step-by-step guide highlighting their design process. As stated earlier, we have been able to award a 3D printer prize in some past semesters. However, this will depend on our budget for the upcoming spring workshop series. Every year, it has been such a tough decision for our instructors to choose a winner. Therefore, we might even have our students instead submit their projects into an Instructables contest for the upcoming semester. Shown below was the 30-point rubric from last year:
3. Creativity - 5 - How unique, original, and useful/interesting is your model?
4. Key Concepts - 5 - Do you use at least 4 different tools in Fusion 360?
5. Effort/complexity - 5 - How complex is your design/how much effort did you put into it?
6. Functionality - 5 - How well/does your design actually work in real life?
7. Design guide - 5 - Does your design guide show all steps of creating your model?
8. Above and beyond - 5 - Does your design go above and beyond our expectations? Did you create a render/animation?
9. Design Time - Students have the rest of the time to work on their design contest projects.

1. Design Time - Students are given some more time to work on and submit their entries.
2. Judging - Instructors meet in a private breakout room to select a winner based on the rubric. Students fill out two Google Forms: one to give us feedback on their overall class experience and the other to select which of their designs they want 3D printed and mailed to them.
3. Student Design Contest Winner - We reveal the winner and award the certificate and prize.
4. Kahoot and Jeopardy - We end off the semester with some fun and interactive games.

Once Week 8 is over, we 3D print and mail out all of the student's designs. We also document all of the impressive student projects and other media on our website page and other platforms. (Parents sign a media release form giving us permission to do so).

The main struggle our program has faced is too few sign ups. I have a lot of confidence in the value our program offers to its students, but the main problem is that our workshop series has not reached as vast of an audience as we would have hoped. That is why we are working extra hard on this outreach for the upcoming semester. We want to fulfill the Student Makers mission of providing maker education to as many students as possible. Although it can seem disheartening to put so much time and energy into a program that only brought in six students last semester, it was still rewarding to see the level of knowledge, skill, and interest achieved. Former students of our workshop series often take on 3D printing and design as a hobby far beyond the program. Although we have struggled with numbers in the past, we can measure our workshop's success not by quantity, but by the quality of student projects and the passion we inspire in them.