You see it every time someone discovers the magic of 3D printing: A charmed expression and fascinated stare on the nozzle building the real 3D object. A zillion creative ideas are running through their brain. That is one of the reasons why 3D printers are so popular in schools.
Here is another picture: A sole 3D printer collecting dust on the shelf where it was put aside after half a year of use.
Secondary Technical School Prosek, Czech Republic, was in exactly the same place a few years ago. However, it didn’t give up on its initial goal to leverage
3D printing so that its graduating students had the design and computer skills associated with making 3D files to meet employers' needs. Thanks to the determination of Lukas Prochazka, Deputy Headmaster, the school has continued to look for the perfect way to use 3D printing technology in education since 2011, when it purchased its first printer.
In 2015, after partnering with Y Soft, the school came closer to reaching its goal than ever before. At that time, the school created a special classroom initially equipped with 10 YSoft BE3D 3D printers (today, it is 15) and opened the classroom to all of the school’s students and teachers. Finally, the school was able to integrate 3D printing with its own general 4-year curriculum fully.
The school added a course on 3D printing not only as an individual subject but also as a complementary technology that improved the interactivity of lessons in other subjects, such as CAD or Machine Construction.
While students were allowed to use 3D printers for personal purposes and fun, the majority of their printed objects were relevant to education. Moreover, most of the printed projects were used for the students’ graduation projects.
Read our
case study
to find out how
Technical School Prosek is using the classroom and what they learned in the one-year field test to operate their fleet of 3D printers effectively.
Today, Y Soft and the school opened a classroom for other school teachers in Prague to learn how to use 3D printing in their educational curriculum.
David Miklas, the previous CEO of YSoft BE3D (left), and Jiri Bernat, the Headmaster of Prosek Technical School, cut the ribbon to officially open the 3D classroom lab.
Want to get started with 3D printers? We built a 12-part series to walk you through everything you need to know to conquer the world of 3D print-based teaching! Head to the first part here: