Naomi Meredith  00:00

What 3D printers should you be buying for your elementary classroom? Well, I have my personal preference, which we will talk about in this quick episode, I reached out to some of my STEM teacher friends, and a lot of you over on Instagram @naomimeredith_ to get your insight. And you all gave me such awesome information that I wanted to create a short episode with all of your responses, and capture it in one place. So let's jump in into these recommendations. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

If you haven't checked it out already, the last two episodes before this one were all about 3D printing, so make sure to check those out. In episode 69, I talked about the top tips for 3D printing and the elementary classroom and some lesson plan ideas of what I do with Kindergarten through fifth grade. After that was episode 70, where I interviewed Bruce Wyman, and he has extensive knowledge when it comes to 3D printing. And he taught elementary STEM and is currently in the middle school space and also had a 3D printing company. So he has a lot of knowledge and expertise. So definitely go back and take a listen to those. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

And then this episode, are those recommendations that you guys gave me. Before we jump into these recommendations, none of these are sponsored by the way and these are comments from STEM teachers like you and who have experienced using them. Of course, there are more 3D printers out there. So this is definitely just a snapshot of some that are being used in classrooms today. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

That's what I definitely talked about in episode 69. When it comes to 3D printing, the kids creating actually isn't the hard part. It's actually managing them from a teacher side. So you definitely want to have something that's user friendly and doesn't cause you any problems. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

My friend Jen Sevy, which she was on the podcast to on episode 22 about Engineering Design Sprints, she has three Lulzbots. She said, “once you get to know them, they're great.” So it sounds like there's like more of a knowledge base that you need for Lulzbot just based on what you guys are saying the software that slices the print (when you have the kids create in a program, you have to take their print and put it into the slicing software, which tells the print how many layers do you need and what order it's going to be in) can be a little tricky, and it just has all these updates and everything. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

So this is a sidenote: she actually accidentally bought some filament, which is the plastic that you use to print with, that was flexible. She printed these key chain designs that kids made the keychains were kind of like movable, which was a happy accident. And then somebody else @b_is_for_burns has a Lulzbot. So definitely again another printer just sounds like there's more of a learning curve and definitely something you'll have to get used to. 

 

Naomi Meredith  00:30

Again, my friend has another printer. I've never heard of this brand, but he loves it. My friend Alex has the Creality Ender 3. Because he does have so many 3D printers, he definitely can have a direct comparison. He loves it. He doesn't have to manually level the bed which is great and he can print over 100 prints and everything will print correctly and the nozzle goes in the right place which I definitely have that experience as well.

 

Naomi Meredith  01:55

The first brand we're going to talk about is MakerBot. And the brand that I have currently is the MakerBot Sketch classroom. And I really, really, really love them. When I entered my classroom, there was an older printer left in my room, it was a MakerBot brand. I'm not sure what it is. I know it's not made anymore. And it was fine. But it was really old. It was probably like, you know, when 3D printers were just getting implemented in classrooms, it was probably good for its time, but there definitely needed to be some upgrades. 

 

Naomi Meredith  02:28

So that's actually what started my search to be honest into MakerBot because that was the brand that was already in my room. I found the MakerBot Sketch Classroom and I've been absolutely impressed. I got them right before the 2020 shutdown of March 2020. And since then, I've had zero issues. I have two printers, lots of filament rolls to the you got the teacher and student training along with that all under $2,000. And it was literally I took them out of the box turned them on and I was good to go. I didn't have to set anything up. So I love it. It's been great for me! I print 1000s of prints and no issues. So definitely love it. 

 

Naomi Meredith  03:10

Over on Instagram @computecreateteach, she has two MakerBot Replicator+, so different brand. She loves the cloud printer software that it comes with, which is probably the same software that I'm using as well. 

 

Naomi Meredith  03:23

So when we talk about cloud based printing, that means that you're setting up the prints on your computer and their web based platform and you are able to wirelessly wirelessly send the 3D prints to the printer so I'm not hooking up a computer directly so she sounds like she's not either. Her printers she actually hooks up her printers specifically to Ethernet ports. She probably has that wireless setting on the printers, but just you know how schools can be with the internet access she hooks them up to Ethernet ports to keep her internet more reliable. 

 

Naomi Meredith  03:58

From a different brand, she's getting two Flashforge printers coming up which that's another brand we're going to talk about. 

 

Naomi Meredith  04:05

@learning_in_bliss has also has two MakerBot Replicators not sure if it's the plus or not. She said those have also been very dependable and 1000s of prints each year. She also has a Flashforge Finder and hopefully that is going well for her as well. 

 

Naomi Meredith  04:23

@essentiallyalf has an XYZ which I had never heard of this brand before. And I asked her more about it and they said it's just so-so, nothing over the top, but is absolutely loving the MakerBot Sketch Classroom, and that is what I have. 

 

Naomi Meredith  04:40

@mathematicallyenthused, which is Kelly Hogan (which you heard from her on the podcast back in episode 45 So go and check out her episode she's a K through 6 STEAM teacher) she also has a MakerBot brand is really enjoying it. 

 

Naomi Meredith  04:55

@stephfunny2 also has a MakerBot sketch. So overall based on the findings, there's variety of brands and MakerBot. It sounds like people have been really impressed so far, at least with these newer models and it's been a good brand in those classrooms. 

 

Naomi Meredith  05:08

The next big brand that we hear about a lot is Flashforge. I asked my STEM teacher friend Alex Hull, and he has a Flashforge Creator Pro. He says it's good. What's cool is there's a dual extrusion. I looked that up actually didn't know what that was, what I found, you can mix two colors. So you can have two different colors going which that's pretty awesome. 

 

Naomi Meredith  05:32

I tell my students this, I bet they're already even out there, but printers that have all the colors, and they're kind of like an inkjet printer. Kids would love it if their designs could be printed in the colors that they design them. I bet it's out there or it will be mainstream soon. 

 

Naomi Meredith  05:48

It's also a boden tube printer, and it has a self-leveling bed. So on his Flashforge Creator Pro, it will level itself. So that means that you don't have to do it. It's the right distance for the bed play and the extruder. So it can print all the layers correctly. My MakerBot Sketch Classroom is also self leveling. I don't have to do anything. 

 

Naomi Meredith  06:13

With his Flashforge he says it's older. I researched and there's other Flashforge, newer ones out there. So he was having issues with the software for his but like I said there are newer models that are doing well. 

 

Naomi Meredith  06:27

My friend Becca McMillan, which you heard from on episode 40, she has the Flashforge Finder. Just looking at it on the website, it seems like it's all out of the box a lot like mine. It's an affordable price. She likes it, and hers has “Polar Cloud”. So again, you can send the prints wirelessly, which definitely is a game changer. Not having one computer setup to your printer. I feel like a lot of the newer printers are going this direction anyway because it does really wear out your computer when it's connected directly. And then @mrsgenenbacher18 also has a Flashforge not sure what brand but that's something that she has in her classroom. 

 

Naomi Meredith  07:05

And then another popular brand is Lulzbot. My same friend, Alex, he has a lot of different printers in his room, so that's really interesting, too, that he can mix and match his experience. He has the LulzBot Mini 2, he says what's frustrating is that he actually has different size filament for this printer than his other ones. So that can be more expensive when your printers use different size filament. And the beds are really tiny. So that definitely if you want to create something bigger, that could be definitely a challenge. 

 

Naomi Meredith  07:39

I would say most of these printers I'm talking about two are like desktop size. So none of these are ginormous. In the elementary space, you don't need a ginormous 3d printer. To be honest, it would be nice to have but not needed. And so then with his LulzBot Mini 2, he definitely has constant issues that are definitely fixable, but it's annoying when you're managing a lot of prints. 

 

Naomi Meredith  09:44

It's also a boden tube printer, which I mentioned before and that means it's how the filament is led into the 3D printer. So I found an article about this just to compare that type of printer to another which I will link in the show notes. So you can see a visual as to what that means. 

 

Naomi Meredith  10:00

Other brands that aren't as popular just didn't pop up as much when I asked you @chrissyb_45 has a Prusa and then @amyjrenick & @auntiemary13 have a Dremel. 

 

Naomi Meredith  10:13

So you definitely just want to do your research and price comparison. If you are a beginner definitely look for something that is like out of the box doesn't need a whole lot of extra setup and also look for something that has cloud based printing software, which I feel like most are going this way but you also want to double check. So those are some two really big things what you're looking for any really definitely ask around look her reviews. 

 

Naomi Meredith  10:40

We can talk about this in my upcoming book club, virtual book club where, yes, we'll talk about the books, but we can also talk about strategies and build a community and talk about these things. naomimeredith.com/bookclubwaitlist

 

Naomi Meredith  10:50

So definitely do your research, but hopefully this helps guide just kind to look for. I'll definitely link all of these in the show notes for you. But hopefully this will kick off your research and just know where a starting point is and where to go. Also, I recommend buying straight from their websites, the actual manufacturer website so you can get direct support. 

 

Naomi Meredith  11:11

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions and reaching out and hopefully I can do more episodes like this one to help you out more in your STEM space.