Intermediate Lesson 13 – Intermediate slicing techniques and materials

Intermediate 3D Printing

Recommended age range 14 – 16

In this lesson your students will learn the main types of plastics being used for 3D Printing and they will understand how Bio-Plastics are made. They will also learn more advanced features involved with slicing a model such as layer height, infill, rafts and supports.

Lesson resources include;

  • Lesson plan
  • Lesson powerpoint
  • Lesson task and answer sheet
  • Homework task and answer sheet

What teachers say….

“Students are engaged and enthused by the units and the making tasks are perfectly pitched to develop 3D printing skills and knowledge.” Tom Beardsall, Design and Technology teacher, Wythenshawe high school.

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This lesson will enable your classes to understand the more technical details associated with 3D Printing materials and also slicing techniques. To be able to 3D Print high quality parts the ability to understand the key features that are involved with slicing is vital to the learning process. This lesson will enable your students to be able to slice their own models delivering successful outcomes using Cura slicing software. Cura is an open source slicing package that allows for easy model preparation and is widely used by over 2 million 3D printing enthusiasts.

Included in the learning is the further study of materials (how PLA is made from cornstarch) and more indepth knowledge on layer height, infill and the concept of supports on models. Also included is learning what rafts are and a link to a youtube video demonstrating infill and why supports are used.

Both the lesson task and the homework sheet come with example answers so they can be self assessed or peer assessed. This will enable rapid progress as students can be involved with the assessment of their work.