When President Obama came here last month, he didn’t show up just to land in Prospect Park and eat Junior’s. He was here to give props to P-Tech for preparing the students of today for the economy of tomorrow (and also today we guess). In order for kids who aren’t at P-Tech to get left behind, MakerBot has announced that they’re willing to give any high school teacher who can raise $100 a Replicator 2 3D printer for their classroom.
The program, MakerBot Academy, is looking to get 3D printers into as many classrooms as possible by the end of the year. They’re not actually selling the Replicators at a steep discount, but rather, using the Almost Home funding program. Through that program, teachers sign up for DonorsChoose.org and go with the MakerBot Academy bundle. After that, it’s up to you to guilt inspire your friends and family to raise the measly hundred bucks it’ll take to get the Replicator.
Aside from teaching kids the new way things will be made, this seems like it could be a good learning tool to bring concepts in history and literature to life. You could make your class their own little Prussian soldiers for the history lessons on when the Kaiser overran Europe or make a tiny Globe Theatre for you to explain where Shakespeare put on his plays. Yes, every subject could be helped by this new technology, except for maybe math.