3D Printing In Elementary Schools

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You can feel it in the hallway conversations at KAST: schools are not asking whether technology belongs in the classroom anymore. The real question is how to make it matter. From Louisville, Kentucky, I sit down with digital learning coaches Erica and Sandy to unpack what it takes to support teachers when devices, apps, and expectations keep changing. 

Website: spotlight4success.com

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:06):
Welcome to American Book Company Spotlight for
Success.
I'm your host, Danielle Pintozi,and joining us we have Erica and
Sandy.
We are at the CAST conference inKentucky, Louisville, and we're
just gonna see what brings Sandyand Erica to Cast today.

SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
We are digital learning coaches and our
district, which means that we doa lot of different things
working with teachers toimplement technology in their
classrooms.
So any kind of technology atall, they can call and use us as
resources to enhance theirlessons or give them new ideas
or help implement new technologytechnology hardware or software

(00:49):
or curriculums or anything.

SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
So we come here to get more ideas and share those
out with our teachers who aren'table to come to these
conferences, maybe.
We do bring some of our peoplewith us, our library and media
specialists are here, and wehave a group of Tech and
Innovation Academy teachers fromour district that are here today
and came yesterday.
So we come to get ideas.
We also presented yesterday andwe presented this morning.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12):
Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
What'd y'all present?
Um I spoke about our grant thatwe received from CAS last year.
On we have put mobile 3Dprinting stations in all of our
elementary schools, and howwe're implementing that and um
integrating that in K-12 to allof our curriculum, and then
today.

SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
And then this morning I presented on Lego
Science.
So Lego Education came out withscience curriculum last year,
new kids.
And so I presented on that andhow we are using that in our
schools and going in and helpingteachers teach science lessons
with whole Lego.

SPEAKER_02 (01:45):
Can you talk more specific of how you use those
resources in your schools?

unknown (01:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:52):
Yeah, so our 3D printers we use a lot just
co-curricular type things.
You can really do a 3D printingproject with anything, and the
beautiful thing is that whenyou're designing 3D prints, um
there's a lot of math involved,there's science, there's I mean
basically just anything.
Um 3D printing is not just 3Dprinting for fun, but like a lot

(02:15):
of manufacturing happens in anadditive manufacturing space
now, and so Kentucky's greatestexports are manufacturing
exports, and so we want to makesure that our students are ready
for the workforce immediatelyout of high school if that's
what they choose to do.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
What got y'all started in your current roles?

SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
So I was a teacher in the classroom for years
teaching chemistry and biology,and then um in 2010, our
district in Woodford County wasthe first district in the state
of Kentucky to go one-to-onewith technology in the
classroom.
We had iPads in our classrooms.
Um we are now Chromebook basednow.
So as I was doing that pilot,that led me into this role.

(02:56):
So a couple of years after that,after going and using that
technology in my class, I becamea they called us a technology
integration specialist then.

SPEAKER_01 (03:05):
So I started out as a math and engineering teacher,
and I actually came into theclassroom after staying home
with my kids for 15 years.
And when I came into theclassroom, it was like, hey,
here's your Chromebook, teachmath on the internet, and I was
like, that is not how I wastrained at all.
And I had an amazing mentor whoheld my hand in how to use that

(03:25):
technology in my math classroom,and it just became a passion of
mine, and then I was given thisopportunity to come and help
other teachers, like thatteacher helped me, and I just
love it.
I enjoy it so much.

SPEAKER_02 (03:38):
That's awesome.
Just being able to usetechnology in the classroom like
that, and kind of just pickingbacking off that.

SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
I think um our district has done a really good
job of embracing AI.
We never shut it down.
We have used it, we have triedto become as knowledgeable as we
can, and we train our teacherson ways that it'll make their
life easier and why they shoulduse it to save them time in the
classroom, but we're alsoteaching our kids how to use it

(04:17):
and use it appropriately.
I think it's they have to useit, it's the future, so it's
here, and um, so it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 (04:24):
Yeah, I think that that's one of the challenges
that I have seen is there are somany teachers in so many
districts that are like we don'twant AI because then kids cheat
and then they aren't learning,and then there's a lot, but
really if they are.
If they are, but if you are ifyou take that perspective of how
can we use this better and howcan we make sure that our
students are using it to theiradvantage and not just to

(04:44):
replace their learning?
Um, that's and in my mind it'sgetting that message out that
it's not a bad thing, it's notgonna kill education, it's not
gonna kill jobs, it's how it'show you use it, yeah, is what is
so important.

SPEAKER_02 (04:58):
I totally agree with that.
Um just before we close out, isthere anything you'd like to
share with the cast community?
We love coming, we're alwaysglad to come for your learning
from everyone else while we'rehere.
So well, thank you so much forcoming on our podcast.
Um we hope you enjoy the rest ofyour conference and thank you.

(05:21):
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.