# 3D Printing > 3D Printing in Education > Teachers & Professors >  Help w/ Some Research - Teacher Input Needed

## MrCummings

Hello!
My name is Charles and I have to do some light research for this degree program I am trying to wrap up in Ed. Leadership. I am wondering if anyone here wants to help me out by filling out a survey – might take ten minutes or so - regarding 3D printing and the role it could play in education. I am also posting this in the forum for 3D printing in Education - maybe some teachers in there will see it  :Big Grin: 
Some background on me - I have been 3D printing for the last half of the year (yeah, I am a little late to the party and would have been there sooner if Encashment would have approved my request for a 3D printer lol). During that time I have been doing more and more with 3D printing for educational purposes and have enjoyed every minute of it.  Along the way I got to thinking about how many other K-12 educators are using 3D printing in their instructional practices or at least desire to do so and how 3D printing communities can guide and influence the decisions educators make regarding the acquisition of 3D printers. My ultimate goal with this research is to gain insight on what teachers are doing with 3D printing , would like to do with 3D printing in their content area, and I also am curious about the variables that are considered when someone purchases or wants to purchase a 3D printer. Some of the questions I am looking to answer through this research are:
1.The variables that are considered when purchasing a 3D printer (by educators, hobbyists, and the general consumer of technology)
2. How educators are using 3D printers in their learning environment or would intend on using the printer in their learning environment.
3. Teacher perception on effectiveness of 3D printer use in their learning environment (those that are currently using one to promote learning).
4. Frequency of usage of 3D printers for instruction
... and several other smaller bits of information regarding 3D printing in education (I kept this mostly related to FFF printers as they are the most affordable and practical for educators to consider owning/using/incorporating into instructional practices).
Today I am asking you to help me out with my research instead of my DaVinci AiO. Your help in contributing to this research would be greatly appreciated. I put together a survey here for data collection purposes: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aKa95j … =send_form
I would greatly appreciate if you could help me out with this.  Feel free to pass it along to anyone you know who does 3D printing in a learning environment or as a hobbyist, or any teachers you may know who would be willing to help out.
Thank you for the help.
Charlie

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## Boeckman MakerSpace

Hi,
Sounds like great research! Here at our Middle School in MN we are newbies too. Our hope is to receive a grant from New Matter for one of their 3D printers. Can't raise the funds locally, so will be submitting our grant to them soon. No guarantees, but if it flies, we would love to work with you.
Will keep you informed.
Boeckman MakerSpace

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## Pintstein

I'm curious to hear your results! I'm a substitute teacher with a startup company aiming to provide 3D printer education and repair services to schools, libraries and hobbyists.  I have purposely been getting experience repairing and recalibrating a wide range of FFF printers so that I can fix, recalibrate or at least diagnose the problem within two hours of seeing a machine for the first time.  When I substitute teach there is often a planning period or two that I am imagining I could use to get machines in good working order.

The biggest problem with this business model is that 3D printing is difficult to learn and few teachers have the time to master it.  In an attempt to solve that problem, I am hosting a Makeathon at Twin Cities Makerspace designed to give teachers the hands on experience they need to use a 3D printer in their classroom. Do you think a 28 hour party with access to five 3D printers and an instructor skilled in Blender, TinkerCAD, OpenSCAD and Fusion 360 would be sufficient to give teachers a base for exploring the world of 3D printing? http://pintsteinpro.com/make.html

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