Whether you’ve thought about incorporating 3D printing into your curriculum or you recently purchased an Ultimaker printer for your classroom and you need some guidance, our new Core Lessons: STEAM Set has everything you need to get started! Designed by the Ultimaker North America Community Team, this collection of projects is a resource for educators who need inspiration, hands-on experience, and ideas to spark creatively and nurture growth.

In a continued effort to celebrate and motivate educators through ventures like the Ultimaker Pioneer Program and Design Engine Starter Pack , the Community Team strives to streamline the 3D printing process for educators and students alike. From K12 to Higher Ed and informal learning environments, the benefits that 3D printing projects bring to learners are invaluable for meeting educational objectives across a variety of subjects. The Ultimaker Core Lessons: STEAM Set supports that effort through a series of lessons that educators can easily implement in their classrooms, or use to get themselves up to speed with the design tools and hardware.

These eight core beginner lessons are recommended for ages 10 and up, covering key objectives like producing digital models, executing boolean operations, preparing models for 3D printing, and understanding geometry. By fusing these elements of 3D printing into their class projects, educators have further opportunity to work with students on their communication skills, build resiliency through rapid prototyping techniques, and encourage exploration of the tools at hand through defined learning objectives.

Thinking critically and improving communication

Lizabeth Arum, Ultimaker Education Community Strategist, understands the learning value that CAD design and rapid prototyping projects can bring to the classroom. She says, “Our objective is to instill a love of learning in students so that they can think critically, communicate effectively, persevere, be intrinsically motivated, be responsible for their own learning outcomes, and find joy in the process.” These projects also enable educators to delve into the operation of their 3D printer, honing in on their 3D printing skills so that they can create additional lessons to supplement their own curriculum.

Each of the eight core lessons hits primary learning goals and utilizes various software applications to provide a robust educational experience. They include:

Lesson 1: Coin Traps

This lesson is a quick introductory project that provides instructions on how to create the same model using different applications: Tinkercad, OpenSCAD, and Fusion 360.

Lesson 2: Pill Box

The Pill Box project is another quick-to-create and quick-to-print lesson. This project teaches students about measuring with precision, tolerances, offsets, and aligning objects.

Lesson 3: Flashlight

This lesson asks you to look for material substitutes for dowels, slabs, and tubes, and encourages you to use 3D printing for what it does best: creating parts that cannot be easily produced using other available means.

Lesson 4: Potato Head Challenge

This project encourages students to problem solve and to design quickly while also providing essential experience with the printer.

Lesson 5: Sphericons

This project lets you explore cones, cubes, octahedrons, and how they fit together with sphericons.

Lesson 6: Creative Type

In this lesson, students design and 3D print their images or patterns to be used to create foam block prints.

Lesson 7: Penny whistles

This project only works if students follow the rules about placement and lengths, and teaches them how to control pitch.

Lesson 8: Tessellations

This project integrates math concepts for developing tiles with a lesson on using offsets so that the created 3D printed tiles fit together.

Lessons come complete with constructive information and handy files to help guide educators through each project. Paired with the Ultimaker Design Engine Starter Pack, we’re excited for you to jump in, inspire, and entertain learners of all ages with 3D Printing!