KATY, TX, June 19, 2014 – Engaging Solutions, LLC, a K-12 educational consulting firm based in Katy, Texas, focused on advanced technologies to transform instruction and enhance learning, is excited to offer 3D printing technology to the educational market with MakerBot, the global leader in desktop 3D printers. Engaging Solutions recently launched an initiative to bring cutting-edge 3D printing technology into High School and STEM program in America through the use of the award-winning MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer.
MakerBot is leading the Next Industrial Revolution by setting the standards in reliable and affordable desktop 3D printing. The company has built the largest installed base of desktop 3D printers sold to innovative and industry-leading customers worldwide, including engineers, architects, designers, educators and consumers. The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem drives accessibility and rapid adoption of 3D printing and has been honored with many accolades.
“3D printing is the quintessential disruptive technology in education today, revolutionizing the way students create, collaborate, and comprehend,” said Erica Stietenroth, CEO of Engaging Solutions. “It unleashes the potential of students who can now go from an on-screen concept to a 3D object they can literally hold in their hands and easily modify, refine, and enhance to achieve their desired results.”
This capability takes student engagement into an entirely new dimension,” noted Mary Beth Kreml, professional development specialist for Engaging Solutions (and a former teacher and instructional technologist at Klein ISD). “Students go far beyond Hear, See, and Do and now take the amazing leap to Create. When students work together to develop an idea and then watch it take form before their eyes, it makes learning real and exciting, and demonstrates what they are capable of achieving.”
“Perhaps most important,” added Stietenroth, “is the vital training and preparation for both secondary education and the 21st century workforce, in which the skills and confidence developed today from hands-on use of advanced technologies like 3D printing are increasingly essential for future opportunities.”
While 3D printing has been an exciting and emerging technology for education, it has for the past 25 years been a technology typically found in the industrial sector and priced out of range for schools. Today though, with brands like the MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers which retail between $1,375 and $6,499, these advanced 3D printers are accessible at the department and even classroom level and are rapidly appearing in science labs, physics classes, design and drafting classrooms and becoming a must-have, hands-on tool in cross-discipline, project-based STEM programs.
Engaging Solutions is finding that many school districts are currently researching and purchasing 3D printers that will be in classrooms for the new 2014-2015 school year. The Roanoke Rapids Graded School District in North Carolina did precisely this in June 2013 when Superintendent Dennis Sawyer authorized the purchase of a MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer requested by Roanoke Rapids High School drafting instructor, Charles Tucker.
“The kids absolutely love the ability to actually create what they’ve designed in drafting class,” said Mr. Tucker. “We visited a local manufacturing company who gave us one of their machine part designs to replicate on our MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer. When we took them the MakerBot 3D printed part back, their designers said it was a precise match. They were extremely impressed with what my students could do.”
For more information on how to integrate MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers into your curriculum, contact Erica Stietenroth at 979-574-4909. Visit http://www.engaging-solutions.com to learn more about Engaging Solutions.