3D Printing

As I looked through the articles on 3-D printing from the Smithsonian and Thingiverse, I became intrigued by what I saw. I knew that many people had been using 3-D printing for awhile now, but I didn't fathom the full extent of its application. The Smithsonian's use of printing to preserve history stands as my favorite application so far. The ability to take something either lost to history or badly damaged and recreate it for the use of education seems far more practical than simply creating a case for your iPhone 6. However, Thingiverse has many practical applications as well. I think back on the scaled model of the T-Rex skull that we looked at in class last week, and I found similar models on Thingiverse. I enjoy that 3-D printing has taken on the form of education, rather than just a form of art--which has its own uses in society. If I were to use a 3-D printer in my hypothetical classroom, it would be as a supplemental element on a creative project. Being an English major, I imagine assigning a creative project over an author or a piece of literature and allowing the students to create an object that represents and encompasses a feature of their project. For example, if a student were to choose "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, that student might want to create a model of a perched raven or, perhaps, a bust of the speakers lost love, Lenore. I think that the 3-D printer has functional and useful applications no matter the chosen subject, and I look forward to experimenting with it further!