Three-dimensional printing – from idea to application Erasmus Project

Project Title

Three-dimensional printing – from idea to application

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Creativity and culture; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Three-dimensional printing is a groundbreaking technology, which already plays a major role in some branches of research, science and technology, for example, in medical technology, or mechanical engineering.

The present project aimed to allow students, in a motivating context, to get an insight into this technology, to approach it step by step and thus to get to know a series of innovative tools by carrying out different application examples, for example the CAD modeling of typical national buildings.

Three partners are working together within this project. The applicant organisation, the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Böblingen, Germany, is a general-education gymnasium that leads to the abitur. It has a keen interest in scientific and technological topics, already gained experiences with the school’s own 3D printer and offers a bilingual profile. The partner organisations are the IES DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ and the Jacques Cartier College. The IES DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ in Torrelodones, Spain, is a public secondary school, which offers, among other things, an excellence program, which is very demanding and requires students to produce a research project at the end of the stage. The Jacques Cartier College in Chauny, France, is a school, which also offers a bilingual profile and has gathered some expericences in 3D printing, using the school’s own 3D printer.

An important goal for our schools was to collaborate on construction and design work using 3D printing. As part of the project, students made designs for various objects, produced some of these objects using the 3D printer, tested their suitability for use, and finally documented their results. This involved collaboration not only between different subject areas – for example, science, technology and art – but also between schools from different regions of Europe. As a student-motivating context, the construction of a marble run was chosen, which led through corresponding countries in Europe. The marble run is embedded in buildings typical for the country (e.g. Brandenburg Gate, Eiffel Tower, Alcazar). Certain elements of the marble run as well as the country-specific buildings were modeled with the help of CAD programs (Tinkercad, Openscad) and manufactured with the help of 3D printers.

Considering the fact that the construction plans are provided digitally, the long-term benefit of the project is garantueed. Not only will our own schools be able to use the teaching material from this project, but any school that is interested in similar projects and wishes to do so.

Project Website

http://mpg-bb.de/die-fachbereiche/mint-mathematik-informatik-naturwissenschaften-und-technik/erasmus-am-mpg/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 69392 Eur

Project Coordinator

Max-Planck-Gymnasium Böblingen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Collège Jacques Cartier
• IES DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ