3D-printing helps students make sense of election madness!

We are excited to announce the newest addition to our 3D Printing Curriculm: Electoral Madness. Developed by educators Liz Ramos and John Stevens, this new lesson that incorporates 3D printing in the classroom could not be any more timely.

As we quickly head towards one of the most controversial and widely discussed presidential elections in American history, it is more important than ever that we educate our young people on one of the cornerstones of American democracy: the election process.

This lesson plan does a wonderful job of exploring how the Electoral College works and its ramifications to American government. The plan includes links to all necessary reading materials and videos and also includes discussion questions and instructions on how to encourage students to develop a deeper understanding of our voting system through debate and roleplay.

One of our very favorite parts of this lesson plan is, of course, the integration of a 3D-printed Electoral College map. An effective learning tool, the map provides a three-dimensional representation of the way the U.S. electoral college has voted historically. The map also can be customized to enter data manually for each state.

The map was designed by Chris Krueger and is available on Thingiverse as [thing:690049].

Help your kids make sense of Electoral Madness and be sure to work this lesson plan into your social studies curriculum this week!