What is Slicing Software

This chapter presents a professional development model for introducing preservice and inservice teachers to makerspaces and 3D printing. The model is based on a 3D Printing 4 Teaching & Learning project, a school/university partnership focused on maker and 3D learning. In the project, 13 inservice teachers were paired with 10 preservice teacher candidates and charged with integrating hands-on physical makerspaces and 3D modeling and printing activities into existing elementary, middle, or high school curricula. Two day-long workshops introduced participants to makerspace experiences. Teachers then completed projects with students organized around history/social studies or science/mathematics topics. Three primary recommendations emerged for integrating maker-based and 3D technologies into preservice and inservice teacher learning: 1) a growth-in-practice model, 2) preservice/inservice teams, 3) multiple approaches to the adoption of new technologies.