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South Africa: a 3D Printing Campaign for Blind Children

For visually impaired people educational resources don’t come by easy. Learning to read braille is essential but costly and not always effective (it may take up to three times as long as other students to read a text), while assistive technology, such as closed-circuit TV, screen-magnification or screen-reading software, could help them to read or access the internet; is not available everywhere. With 285 million people suffering from blindness and reduced vision problems, there is a great need to provide materials in accessible formats that help adapt the information to a format that is suitable for them. 3D printing is providing a very helpful tool for the disabled, for example, a volunteer at the National Museums Scotland, in Edinburgh, used a 3D printer to turn CT scans of fossils into physical objects enabling the visually impaired to have more tactile experiences. Other known causes like a collaboration between Indian designer Tania Jain and German educational toy company Ravensburger, came up with a new 3D printed puzzle designed to help the user learn how to read Braille.

Now, the South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) is running a new campaign called: 3D Printing for the Blind and can be found in social media under the hashtag #3DPrinting4TheBlind. The goal of this initiative is basically to assist the SANCB in their quest to educate visually impaired individuals who struggle with more traditional means of learning, by 3D printing a range of educational objects that students in SANCB supported schools can use.

The best part of the project is that anyone around the world can be a part of it. The basic requirement is a 3D printer and access to the nearest post office. It’s a big call out to the 3D printing community, to come together for a good cause. They are asking people to print between one and three items for this campaign. Then, all the 3D prints will be used in classrooms across South Africa to teach visually impaired students new shapes and objects that they are not familiar with. This will also illustrate the way 3D printing can be used in education and how everyone can make a small difference for a large community.

SANCB teamed up with the 3D Printing Shop, one of the biggest one-stop-shop for 3D printing hardware and consumables in South Africa, to provide 3D printing enthusiasts a list of 31 items that they can choose from. The printouts chosen for this project include animals, anatomical models, and vehicles, and should have an approximate size of 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm.

“This campaign was inspired by our daily task of trying to show how practical and beneficial 3D printing could be in everyday life, to help people visually impaired people in our community learn better, as well as reaffirm the importance of 3D printing in education,” suggested Bishop Boshielo, marketing manager of the 3D Printing Store. “We realized educational toys were quite expensive and that visually impaired children struggled to understand two-dimensional concepts so we decided to print them in 3D to give them a better understanding. Also with 3D printers being reasonably priced and easy to use, any parent or caretaker of a visually impaired child could organize and print whatever models they would like to give the children.”

The SANCB supports more than 20 schools for visually impaired children and teens across the country and also runs a college called Optima College, with courses in business, computer literacy, contact center training, and braille literacy. Students’ lives are also enriched with activities focusing on acquiring daily living skills which enable visually impaired students to become fully independent. According to the SANCB, there will be more campaigns like this in 2020, probably more often.

Bishop revealed to 3DPrint.com that “he hopes to witness the children interact with the 3D printed models soon, but can only imagine the relief and excitement that would come from actually being able to hold a shape or model that they had previously only perceived in two dimensions.”

3D Printing Campaign for the blind (Image credit: SANCB)

According to the forms being filled online for this initiative, the 3D Printing Store is expecting 40 models to be delivered soon. Bishop explained that even though the South African 3D printing community is still quite small, it is beginning to grow exponentially as more and more people are realizing how important the technology is and the benefits it holds.

“Our partnership with the SANCB is just starting. Hopefully in the future they will be able to buy 3D printers for each of the schools they support, to print even more educational models for the children.”

The 3D printed items can either be dropped off or mailed by January 31, 2020, to the 3D Printing Store located at:

5 Bellingham St. Highveld, Centurion, 0157, South Africa

The post South Africa: a 3D Printing Campaign for Blind Children appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Researchers Use 3D Printing and Basic Electronic Components to Make Neuroscience More Accessible

While I was worse in math, science was also not one of my strong suits in school. So anything that makes it easier for students to better understand these complex subjects is a good idea, in my humble opinion. Tom Baden, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Sussex, has been collaborating with his colleagues to further open up access to science education with a piece of hardware that can demonstrate how our brains function.

“By making access to scientific and teaching equipment free and open, researchers and educators can take the future into their own hands,” Professor Baden said. ” In time, we hope that this type of work will contribute to level the playing field across the globe, such that ideas, not funding can be the primary driver for success and new insights.”

Professor Baden is also one of the scientists behind the innovative 3D printable FlyPi microscope, and his latest work – an educational model of neurons in the brain made with basic electronic components – is just part of his expanding range of equipment that uses DIY and 3D printable models to make science more accessible and interactive.

One of the central parts of neuroscience is, of course, understanding how our neurons encode and compute information. But there’s not a good hands-on type of way to learn about this…until now. Professor Baden and other colleagues are building Spikeling: a piece of electronic kit which behaves similarly to the neurons in the brain and costs just £25.

“Spikeling is a useful piece of kit for anyone teaching neuroscience because it allows us to demonstrate how neurons work in a more interactive way,” Professor Baden explained.

Professor Baden, together with researchers Ben James, Maxime J.Y. Zimmermann, Philipp Bartel, Dorieke M Grijseels, Thomas Euler, Leon Lagnado and Miguel Maravall, published a paper about their work on Spikeling in the open access journal PLOS Biology, titled “Spikeling: a low-cost hardware implementation of a spiking neuron for neuroscience teaching and outreach.”

The team hopes that their invention will end up being a useful neuroscience teaching tool, and in fact, they are already seeing the benefits of their hard work. A class of third year neuroscience students at the university have used the kit, and at a Nigerian summer school last year, scientists were also taught how to build the hardware from scratch.

Spikeling has receptors, which react to external stimuli such as light to simulate how information is computed by nerve cells in the brain. Then, students can follow the activity of the receptors, or cells, live on a computer screen. Users can also link several Spikelings together to form a network, which demonstrates how brain neurons interconnect. This action makes it possible to demonstrate the neural behavior behind every day actions, such as walking.

The goal in Professor Baden’s lab is to, as the university put it, “level the playing field in global science” and make necessary equipment less expensive than it usually is. That’s why all of the information and design files for Spikeling have been made available, joining a growing trend around the world of designs collected on the PLOS Open Hardware toolkit, which Professor Baden just so happens to co-moderate.

A. Bag of parts disassembled Spikeling, as used in our summer school in Gombe, Nigeria. B. Students soldering Spikelings as part of an in-class exercise on DIY equipment building.

“With all parts being cheap, and design files being free and open, we hope that like any open Hardware design, Spikeling can be a starting point for others to change or extend it to their requirements, and reshare their improved design with the community,” Professor Baden said.

Andre Maia Chagas, one of the research technicians in the lab, recently published his own article in PLOS Biology that explains the importance of open scientific hardware, in response to a piece by Eve Marder, an American neuroscientist who wondered if researchers who worked in less wealthy institutions would fall behind as scientific research equipment continues to grow more expensive. More and more, we’re seeing that 3D printing can be used to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images provided by University of Sussex]

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3D Printed Models Help Students Gain a Better Understanding of DNA Behavior

In a paper entitled “Visualizing the Invisible: A Guide to Designing, Printing and Incorporating Dynamic 3D Molecular Models to Teach Structure-Function Relationships,” a group of researchers from the University of Nebraska discusses the importance of using three-dimensional models to help students understand critical biology and chemistry concepts. Teachers, the researchers point out, often rely on two-dimensional images to teach complex three-dimensional concepts, such as the structure of molecules, but students cannot fully grasp the concepts using only 2D images. Kits with 3D models exist for teaching purposes, but they “cannot handle the size and details of macromolecules.”

3D printing, however, allows instructors to create detailed custom models of molecules of any size.

“For example, protein models can be designed to relate enzyme active site structures to kinetic activity,” the researchers state. “Furthermore, instructors can use diverse printing materials and accessories to demonstrate molecular properties, dynamics, and interactions.”

In the paper, the researchers describe the creation of a 3D model-based lesson on DNA supercoiling for an undergraduate biology classroom. They selected this particular model so that students could “feel DNA relaxation and witness contortions resulting from twists in DNA.” They designed and 3D printed flexible plastic models with magnetic ends to mimic DNA supercoiling.

“We developed a Qualtrics-based interactive activity to help students use the models to classify supercoiled DNA, predict the effects of DNA wrapping around nucleosomes, and differentiate between topoisomerase activities,” the researchers explain.

An upper-level undergraduate biochemistry class was divided into small groups of two to three students to foster peer learning, and each group was provided with one model set. The models were also made available at a library resource center. Interactive questions required the students to measure and explore physical aspects of the models. It took the students about 50 minutes to complete the activity, which was interspersed with lecture and demonstration via a digital overhead.

In interviews following the activity, the students reported that the models helped them learn because “physically seeing it makes something abstract very real.” In a survey, 60 to 70 percent of students stated that the physical models made it easier to learn the material being taught.

The researchers go on to provide step by step instructions for creating 3D printed models for use in the classroom. They designed the models around student misconceptions, they explain, and the models were shown to be effective in clearing up those misconceptions. This study reaffirms what many researchers and educational professionals have learned – that 3D printed models are an excellent way to teach students of any age group. From preschoolers learning shapes and textures to college students learning about DNA supercoiling, having hands-on models helps to make concepts real and accessible. 3D printing is a cost-effective way to create those models, and it is capable of presenting detail in a way that other fabrication methods are not.

“Three-dimensional printing represents an emerging technology with significant potential to advance life-science education by allowing students to physically explore macromolecular structure-function relationships and observe molecular dynamics and interactions,” the researchers conclude. “As this technology develops, the cost, resolution, strength, material options, and convenience of 3DP will improve, making 3D models an even more accessible teaching tool.”

Authors of the paper include Michelle E. Howell, Karin van Dijk, Christine S. Booth,  Tomáš Helikar, Brian A. Couch and Rebecca L. Roston.

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3D Printed Kits Help College Students Understand Complex Concepts

3D printed models can help anyone learn, from preschool students to doctors. In a study entitled “Modeling Antibody-Epitope Interactions with 3D Printed Kits in Large or Small Lecture Courses,” a team of researchers from Colorado State University discuss how they created 3D printed models to help college microbiology and immunology students understand a complex concept.

One of the more difficult concepts for college students to understand, the researchers explain, is the interaction between antibodies and the multiple epitopes found on antigens. Two students, as part of an honors thesis, designed 3D models of antibodies and viruses using Tinkercad. The program allowed them to create an intricate design, placing antibody cylinder “solids” onto viral antigen “holes” to demonstrate their binding. They also designed a cartoon version of an Influenza A virus as their model.

With help from the university’s Idea2Product Lab, the researchers 3D printed their models using PLA and Afinia 3D printers.

Before the test class period, the students were asked to watch a video on the immune system and antibodies. In the class itself, they were given kits with the 3D printed models and asked to do the following:

  • Describe how antigens and epitopes are related
  • Explain why some antibodies that do not bind to epitopes are produced
  • Discuss which regions on the heavy and light chains come together to bind to specific isotopes
  • Identify the region on the antibody that determines its class or isotope

“In total, they will work with four different combinations, two of which will bind an epitope on the same antigen on the virus, and two of which will not have specificity for the virus,” the researchers explain. “This allows students to understand that not all antibodies will be specific for an epitope on an infecting microbe.”

Over four semesters of using the 3D printed kits, 91% of students were able to correctly identify the epitope to which an antibody would bind.

Interestingly, when the combination of heavy and light chains did not bind to any epitopes on the virus only 63% of students answered that the antibodies were not specific for any epitope,” the researchers continue. “This could indicate either that students do not understand that not all of the randomly created antibodies will have specificity for a given infection, or they are not confident enough to answer ‘none of these’. However, after seeing the first antibody that was not specific for any epitopes and discussing how this was possible, when they were given a second antibody that was not specific for the virus 91% answered ‘none of these’, and 96% correctly identified the epitope binding site of the second antibody that had viral specificity.”

No matter the age of the student, 3D printed models can be valuable tools to help with understanding concepts – whether it’s preschool students learning shapes and colors or college students learning about antibodies and epitopes. Some things can be understood much better with interactive physical representations, and 3D printing allows educators to easily and inexpensively tailor models for certain lessons. In addition to learning how a single antigen could have multiple epitopes, students were able to use the 3D printed kits to explore concepts such as agglutination, crosslinking, neutralization, and isotypes. The 3D models are available on Thingiverse.

Authors of the paper include Erica L. Suchman, Jennifer McLean, Steven T. Denham, Dana Shatila, and David Prowel.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.