10 Ways to Use 3D Printed Alphabet Links in School

Now that I've made the Alphabet Bracelet Links available, I wanted to give teachers a starter list of ideas where they can use this project to help make good use of 3D Printers they may have available at school or a local MakerSpace.

10 Ways To Use 3D Printed Alphabet Links In School

These letter links each print pretty quickly, making them a great in-school 3D Printing project. They also link together, making them great for collaborative projects.
Here are some ideas for how to use them in school:

#1:  Support Your Favorite Cause - instead of just your name, print your school name or mascot, characters from a book, a place you love or a sports team or a charitable organization you support. These make great bracelets!

#2:  Make your own links - Challenge kids to make their own link designs (something other than a letter) using the templates I've provided in the files (see link at bottom of post).

#3:  Design your own connectors - Explain to kids how these links connect (they are a custom designed connector - definitely read the "How These Connect" section) and challenge them to come up with their own ideas for how to create connecting snap-together parts (great for older kids).

#4:  Have kids make gifts for parents, friends or siblings - or for other teachers or kids in a neighboring school or one halfway around the world.

#5:  Design unique projects for a whole bracelet or non-bracelet project (check out the Pi Bracelet for inspiration)

#6:  Color Them - Print these in white filament, and have kids color them using Sharpie (tm) markers. Just because your #3DPrinter might only print one color at a time, no reason to let that squelch creativity!

#7:  Make Lesson Words - Print a whole load of these letter links (abclets) and challenge kids to make words relevant to the current lesson.

#8:  Make Word Games - Print a whole load of these and have the kids play word scramble (each kid grabs 7-10 links and tries to make words).

#9:  Make Non-English Words or Letter Links - let kids in foreign language class make words in other languages or even design new links with non-latin letters (Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic or others).

#10:  Collaborate with other schools - have kids compete to make the longest sentence chain or the prime numbers digit-by-digit (you'll need to model the numbers first!) or some other challenge which they can use to create some friendly competition with other schools.

REMINDER - These links fit together in a unique way, so be sure to read my original post about how these work. Once you get going with some of these ideas, come up with your own ideas and share them here in comments!

Here, again, is the link to the 3D Model Files on Pinshape.com