Methodology

The verified methodology was created as part of a project that responds to the recent availability of high-quality 3D printing and the demand for methodical support for 3D printing usage in teaching and didactically accurate topics for the production of teaching aids (models) for individual subjects in primary and secondary schools. The methodology consists of two fundamental units.

The aim of the technical part of the methodology is to provide structured and clear information about 3D printing technology. The goal is also to provide the most effective procedures for its use and to facilitate the adoption of 3D printing in primary and secondary schools that do not have experience with this technology. It also shows reader the possibilities of creating teaching aids using 3D printing technology and their integration into specific lessons. The methodology also contains a collection of free lessons, which are adjusted to schools so that they do not require any further adaptations by teachers, and examples and links to interesting 3D printing models used to support education in selected fields.

The educational part intends to help with orientation in publicly available
resources, to guide the systematical implementation of technology into teaching, to provide an elementary set of useful lessons, and to discuss technical preparations of teachers and students. It also includes embedding 3D printing in curriculum documents. We focus mainly on the obstacles, which are preventing the introduction of 3D printing, as well as on the possibilities of 3D printing and its implementation in the school curriculum. As a part of the analysis of existing materials, there is an evident dominance of projects in the fields of technical orientation. However, we believe that 3D printing technology has much greater potential and can be incorporated into the teaching of most educational fields. In the methodology, we focus mainly on emphasizing interdisciplinarity and the implementation of this technology in other areas (e.g., projects for fields of mathematics-biology, special education-mathematics, geography-biology, etc.).