PIVOT INNOVATION – 3D Printing PLD for Technology Teachers

Professional development for teachers who want their 3D printers doing real work in the classroom.

With backgrounds in rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing, and engineering research, Amos Breyfogle and Jeremy Platt use 3D printers daily to create tools, jigs and moulds to create precise high performance parts and ensure repeatability. While working with local high schools on industry projects, they realised that school 3D printers were largely being used to create single use items or had been relegated to a shelf after suffering a breakdown. 3D printers in the classroom can however be an incredible resource, used to create jigs that allow students to drill dowels perfectly every time, cut mitres to any angle on a proctractor and make finger and dovetail joints a pleasurable experience for technology students and teachers alike. In addition to woodworking 3D prints can bend metal and hold welding fixtures to within a fraction of a degree and  produce moulds that can then be turned into concrete, silicone, wax and even carbon fiber forms! To help teachers realise this potential, they have created a full day PLD for technology teachers and half day basics PLD for enthusiasts from all subject areas. After successful workshops in Queenstown, they are now putting the show on the road around Aotearoa!

3D Printing PLD for Technology Teachers

NEXT PLD DAY — Monday 14 September, Dunedin

Fundamentals — Half Day

8:30am–12:30pm  ·  $250 + GST per teacher

For teachers new to 3D printing. Covers how FDM printers work, filament selection, slicing software and settings, and bed levelling and calibration. You’ll spend the second half on real machines, printing and troubleshooting failures as they happen.

Technology Teachers — Full Day

8:30am–4:30pm  ·  $415 + GST per teacher

Everything in Fundamentals, plus designing jigs and moulds, and mapping it onto a unit you already teach. You’ll walk out with a working jig, a mould you’ve cast yourself, and print files your class can reuse next term.

For more information, visit the website here.

Left: Amos Breyfogle, Principal — Advanced Manufacturing & Strategy. Right: Jeremy Platt, Principal — Product Development & Education