Ten Year Olds are Wowed by 3D Printers!

Sited on back to back campuses our moderately sized primary school enjoys a special relationship with Ireland's largest university.  For many students a journey which begins in our Kindergarten ends in that very university.
We don't exist in its shadow, we exist in its promise.
This week our computer study class - enthusiastic Scratch addicted 10 year old boys and girls - were invited to the university to see some 3D printers in action.
We descended like a cackling flock of hungry geese on the hushed halls of academia whose tenants were kind enough to smile at our enthusiasm.
Ushering us into a conference room, they judged the moment just right and immediately delivered the wow factor - the printers were already humming.     A scaled model of the Sydney Opera House, a button and some letters of the alphabet were scattered on the tables.
Then followed a brief demonstration on how to use SketchUp to design a 3D form, send the design to the printer software and begin the printing process.
Within minutes children who love to groan at the very mention of a Maths book were using virtual protractors, measuring angles, calculating millimeters, trying out circles for the size of their radii and transforming 2D shapes to 3D forms.
Then to have the opportunity to export those designs to the printer - well the sky's the limit!
I see a bright future for 3D printers in education - transforming what can be a very flat model of skills acquisition into one of many dimensions.