3D Prints for Teachers of the Visually Impaired

It took nearly four years, but we finally were able to move forward on this project.  On August 10, 2020 we will have a webinar for teachers of the visually impaired.   There will be a release of lesson plans (and an associated webinar) every few months into 2021. Details and links for webinar signup are at https://www.nonscriptum.com/geometry.

We know it's been a while since we've posted here, but we've been busy taking in the lessons learned from our pilot with the Google Group, talking to lots and lots of people in different communities, and figuring out how these endeavors might scale. It's all harder than it looks - what isn't? - and we have been going down a lot of different promising and not-so-promising roads to think about how 3D printing can be used to help people learn things.

While we are thinking grand thoughts, we've also been trying to find a practical near-term way to help teachers of the visually impaired get started with 3D printing, or at least get an overview of how to get started.

Our first step in this direction is a webinar with Perkins e-learning on 3D printing for teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs.) Perkins School for the Blind, near Boston, is one of the oldest schools for the visually impaired. (Helen Keller went there!)

It's free- on Feb. 28. Sign up here!

http://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webinar/3d-printing-what-is-realistic-for-tvis

Also, for TVIs in the audience that are more advanced, we now also have on Lynda.com (aka LinkedIn Learning) an intermediate course on 3D printing. If you don't have a Lynda.com account through where you work, they have a one-month free trial.  Here's the course:

https://www.lynda.com/CAD-tutorials/Additive-Manufacturing-Optimizing-3D-Prints/618717-2.html

It's cool that so many of you are following this project. If you're looking for math ideas and models, check out our current project, Hacker Calculus.

The project logs describe our attempts to create models of the fundamental theorem of calculus, as well as thinking about how to represent things like the classic predator-prey equations. We have STLs up of the more mature concepts.

Project video:

https://youtu.be/TZrDczxwOWo

Project page:

https://hackaday.io/project/20621-hacker-calculus

Comments always welcome!

We are gratified that we have so many people following this project. Our Google Group is out there with a lot of teachers of the visually impaired asking for models now. However, there has been very little fulfillment of requests. Unless something has a stamp "fulfilled" it is up for grabs! (Or if you have a cool model and it's been fulfilled, post it anyway. Why not!)

As a reminder, here's the group. Instructions are linked there, if it's been a while.  Also, if you are interested generally in math and science modeling, check out our progress on this year's prize  project, Hacker Calculus.

I see we have a lot of new followers lately, which is awesome! I thought I'd note that many of the teachers who have posted a request for a design have not yet gotten anything. If you have a bit of time on your hands, or a student needing a volunteer project to do, please check out the requests that do not yet have a "FULFILLED" tag. The Google Group is here and there are plenty of requests! You do NOT need to make an actual physical model. Just the design is a big help (many of these teachers have access to a 3D printer.)

Or if you're a teacher of the visually impaired, please go ahead and post what you need. I remain hopeful that we'll spool up some group energy and get the requests fulfilled.

If you are here because you are looking for 3D printable science projects, we have another book now up for preorder (at Amazon and at our publisher, Apress.)

Meanwhile, we are waiting to see how the models posted by volunteers are turning out - if you claimed a model and created it, please post a link to the group, too, as well as to the requester. We think there are a lot of folks who can use the models beyond those who asked!

We are working on our new Hacker Calculus project, too. Drop by there to see what's up if you haven't yet... more to come.

We learned a tremendous amount doing this project, and now we want to take this to the next level. Please check out (and follow and like!) our 2017 Hackaday Prize entry, Hacker Calculus project link. We look forward to hearing what you think!

We have been busy trying to figure out how to scale our Google Group and what types of 3D prints people actually want to teach their students, and have been excited that some undergrads at University of North Carolina have jumped in as part of a community project they are doing. We're looking forward to their updates!

Meanwhile, we have recognized that part of this is that people need to learn how to make real stuff with a 3D printer. If any of you local folks want a deep dive into 3D printing in person, we are doing a live class aimed at making useful parts, at the SupplyFrame DesignLab in Pasadena. Registration is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3d-printing-to-make-useful-parts-tickets-31950527889
We also now have a 4 week long online class through LERN Network (outsourced online classes for lots of community college extension programs) specifically about developing math and science models. If you hurry you could still sign up - it's four weeks online, starting now. If not it'll be offered again in May. http://www.nonscriptum.com/classes

How can we get more folks to be less scared of 3D printing? That seems to be a lot of the barrier now. Let us know your thoughts.

[Whoawhatsis] realized that he could slightly change his OpenSCAD Braille model to fulfill a teacher's request for tiles that each have a lower-case letter plus the Braille equivalent of that letter, to use to teach students Braille. So, he went ahead and created a set, using the principles we have discovered thus far. (For instance, printing Braille on vertical faces.)

These are now available in the Google Group or on Youmagine.

They've been downloaded 21 times in 2 days. They even fit very tidily in one of those 0.14 liter "Really Useful Boxes" from Staples. The tiles are small, and so most appropriate for a school environment away from anyone who might want to try and eat them.

There are a lot of requests on the Google Group - if you know how to do 3D modeling, how about a New Year's resolution to create a model a teacher needs for a blind student? Jump on over to the group, pick an open request, and go for it. Instructions in the Instructions section here, or linked on the Google Group. Happy New Year!

We were pleased that Scientific American let us write a guest blog about this project.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/teaching-blind-students-with-3-d-prints/

We plan to continue to publicize this idea and keep this project going, even though the Prize is over. We think it is a community need and that it may evolve and morph, the core idea is that we can do more as a community of makers than any of us can do alone. We will update the project as events warrant, and comments are always encouraged.