Case Study Series

3Doodler EDU Debut

Dierentiated Learning in Three Dimensions

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Summary
A recent pilot project conducted in the UK demonstrated how new and emerging technologies
such as the 3Doodler can enhance, shape and inuence an educational setting in a variety of ways;
as well as encourage students to take on new challenges. The program specically highlighted how
the 3Doodler can be used to:

Incentivize performance amongst students;

Diversify teaching methods within the classroom;
Stimulate kinaesthetic and visual learners;
Enhance the performance of divergent thinkers;
Improve concentration amongst students, including those with ADHD; and
Level the playing eld between male and female students, especially in the sciences.

This case study looks in detail at the goals, methods, and outcomes of the pilot project, and
also highlights feedback from both students and teachers who participated.

Background & Goals

St. Augustines
St. Augustines is located in Redditch, Worcestershire, England and teaches 854 students aged four
to nineteen. In 2012 the school was ranked as the 17th top comprehensive school in the UK based
on pre-university examinations (A-Levels), and the top school in its county.

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Key Terms & Concepts

Learning Styles

Kinaesthetic learning when students learn optimally by doing. Such students may

struggle to learn solely by reading or listening

Visual learning - a teaching and learning style in which ideas, concepts, data, and other
information are portrayed visually, with images and other visual techniques
Auditory learning - a learning style in which a person learns through listening

Thinking Styles

Divergent thinking - a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by

exploring all possible solutions

Convergent thinking - a type of thinking that focuses on coming up with a single, wellestablished answer to a problem. It is oriented toward deriving the single best, or most
correct answer to a question

ADHD - Attention decit and hyperactivity disorder. Students can be unable to focus, overactive,
or unable to control their behaviour
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STEM Subjects - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Technology in Education
In September 2013, the United Kingdom updated its national curriculum. Design and technology
remains a compulsory part of the curriculum for students up to 13 years old, with a renewed focus
on ensuring that all pupils investigate new and emerging technology - Michael Gove, Minister for
Education. This applies not only to design and technology, but also to other areas such as science.

Under the new 2013 national curriculum, the integration of new technologies is required in order
for a school to achieve an evaluation of outstanding from Ofsted, the UKs ocial body for
inspecting schools.

The educators at St. Augustines identied the 3Doodler as an ideal way to introduce relevant
technology to their teaching across disciplines, as well as increase the level of engagement within
traditional subject areas.

The Pilot Program

3Doodler partnered with St. Augustines Catholic High School in

the UK to introduce the 3Doodler to a number of aspects of the
schools curriculum.

The 3Doodler pilot program involved approximately 150 high

school students, the large majority of whom had not used
3Doodler before.

The 3Doodler was incorporated into courses as wide ranging as

mathematics, physics, biology, business, engineering, art, textiles,
and design and technology.

Students:
The 3Doodler helps
you think about
structure.

Some people learn

better when they see
why things work the
way they do.

As a part of the pilot program, the technology department also conducted a survey of all students
involved in the program to evaluate their reaction to the 3Doodler and its use in the classroom,
details of which are set out below.

Methods
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While the 3Doodler was used in various disciplines, for the purposes of this case study we will
focus on the use of the 3Doodler in three specic subject areas:

1. Technology & Engineering

2. Sciences, specically Biology
3. Art & Design

Technology & Engineering

In order to teach students about structures, and the physics behind bridge building, students were
presented with a problem: how to span the distance between two blocks by building something
using the 3Doodler.
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Students were provided with limited resources to complete the

task: the 3Doodler pen, x3 strands of plastic, x2 wooden blocks
spaced 30cm apart, and a template sheet of basic bridge building
shapes (squares, triangles, and H shapes). Prizes were then
awarded for the best individual model and for the best team
eort. The templates
and exercise
instructions used are
available via the
Additional Resources
section below.

Student:
The 3Doodler helps
you to learn, because
it makes you realize
the strength and
reality of things.

In order to make the exercise more timely and relevant

to the students, the lesson was linked to the recent
ooding that had taken place locally, and the practical
need to be able to design and deploy bridges under
planned and unplanned circumstances.

In the absence of the 3Doodler, this unit would normally

have been be taught by asking students to build bridges
made from balsa wood, which presents a number of
challenges: the wood must be cut with sharp knives and
bonded with hot glue guns, all of which must be done
on special cutting surfaces. The educators at St.
Augustines found that the 3Doodler eliminated much
of the preparation normally required and allowed the
students to dive into the task immediately.

A St. Augustines student puts the nishing touches on his

model bridge.

From the teacher at St. Augustines:

From the word go, the students were highly motivated and
enthusiastic about this new technology. Learning was
dierentiated as some students relied on the security of
templates all lesson,others graduated to independent
learning quite quicklyonce they had mastered the
technique.

Sciences: Biology
The 3Doodler was chosen as a tool to teach students about the structure of the human heart.

The heart is a four-chambered pump that is constantly in motion, relying on a complex system of
valves, arteries, and veins. This can be a challenging topic for students. Traditional illustrations and
models frequently fail to convey the logic of the hearts structure, or how the parts interrelate and
impact each other.

For this exercise, students built three-dimensional models of the human heart. This required each
student to consider the structure and arrangement of each ventricular chamber, the placement of
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each valve, and the hearts interface within the venous

system.

In the absence of the 3Doodler, this unit would normally

be taught by dissecting an animals heart (e.g. that of a
pig). This approach has become increasingly fraught with
issues relating to animal welfare, not to mention the fact
that many students simply do not want to handle or
dissect an animals heart. The use of the 3Doodler neatly
sidestepped these concerns and gave students the
opportunity to immerse
themselves in the
Ms. Sharon Fletcher,
structures that they were
Assistant Principal for learning about in an
equally tactile and
New Technologies:
structured manner.

As part of the
education focus of
'closing the gap,' I
believe the 3Doodler
could play a vital part
in supporting
dierentiated learning
across all age ranges
(4-19) in our academy
and in particular
encouraging girls into
STEM subjects.

3Doodled heart with distinctive chambers.

Hands on learning of this type was also seen in Physics, where

students were able to use the 3Doodler to experiment with
concepts such as mass, structure, and the graphing of multilayered equations.

Art & Design

Art & Design is one of the most natural
places for the 3Doodler to be used, and
needless to say the 3Doodler was well
received in art lessons, where students
produced incredible creative works. The
3Doodler was employed in art and
design classes as both an everyday tool
and for the specic creation of exam
pieces.

In one instance, students were given instructions to create objects to

decorate the human form - a very broad mandate. The students
creations ranged from jewellery, to rings, and eccentric glasses that
were made as a homage to Dame Edna, the beloved Australian
comedian.

In these exercises the 3Doodler took the place of traditional materials

such as pipe cleaners, paper, card stock, glue, crepe paper and tissue
paper.

The 3Doodler has also been widely adopted in other schools across the
UK and in the US within art classes for the purposes of sculpting, model
making, pre-CAD drafting, as well as canvas work and the re-rendering
of well known 2D works of art into 3D.
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3Doodled concept for a vertical wind

turbine-powered lamp, designed by St.
Augustines students as part of the UKs
Engineering Education Scheme.

Outcomes
Pupil Engagement
Students were surveyed for their reactions to the 3Doodler. The results speak for themselves.
When asked to rate the 3Doodler on a scale from 1 to 10, 87% of students rated it as an 8 or
above. More specically: 26% rated the pen a perfect 10 and 29% rated the pen a 9.

This feedback, as well as the results of the individual classroom uses, have since been incorporated
into the Departmental Development Plan for the Technology Department at St. Augustines, and
the school is exploring how the 3Doodler can be further integrated into the school curriculum,
including into additional subject areas.

Student Incentivization
St. Augustines educators found that for many students, the 3Doodler was a powerful incentive to
outperform. Use of the 3Doodler provided an incentive to spend more time on exercises, as well
as a motivator to take on additional exercises.

In one experiment carried out by St. Augustines,

vocational studies students, who normally
sought to achieve only a pass on a particular
exercise, were oered the opportunity to
undertake additional tasks with the 3Doodler in
exchange for a push to achieve higher marks
(e.g. a distinction). All of the students who were
presented with this opportunity took advantage
of it and went on to achieve higher marks.

Dierentiation as a teaching
technique

A vocational student and teacher using the 3Doodler to explore

truss structures.

Dierentiation refers to the practice of

employing dierent teaching techniques to
appeal to diering learning styles within the
classroom. Examples include using 3Doodled
physical shapes to educate students about the
dierences in structural strength. This was
particularly so in the bridge building exercise
detailed above, where students were urged to
focus on the pros and cons of triangular vs
square shapes in supporting structures.

The 3Doodler was a powerful tool for dierentiation in every instance where it was used within the
classroom. The pen is intuitively appealing to kinaesthetic and visual learners (a hallmark of which
is learning by seeing and doing), and also ensures that all students are able to progress and absorb
curricular materials, regardless of a given students learning style or ability.
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Eliminating Barriers: Convergent / Divergent Thinkers

In the words of Jacqueline Winn, Head of Technology for St. Augustines:

The most signicant result is that the 3Doodler bridged the gap between types of learners.

Using the 3Doodler, Convergent and Divergent thinkers performed equally well in classes
such as Physics. This stood in contrast to what we traditionally see in such subjects, where
Convergent thinkers generally obtain better results.

One of the classes we noticed a key dierence in was Mechanical Engineering, where the use of
a visual tool increased concentration levels and helped students understand dicult
concepts. Often visual learners nd some concepts quite hard to grasp, but when creating
items with the 3Doodler, we noted a measurable improvement in
performance.

Battle of the Sexes

In addition to this, teachers at St. Augustines also observed the
following unexpected outcome relating to traditional educational
barriers between male and female students:

It was a great leveller between boys and girls Normally, when I bring
in new machinery (e.g. Makita tools) the boys are very keen to use them,
whereas the girls are more resistant. Yet when they were using the
3Doodler, the girls were just as condent with the new equipment
and ideas...

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A 3Doodled model of an atom.

Previously it would have been mainly the boys who would say they
wanted to be an Architect, but one female pupil told me that the
3Doodler had helped her to understand Architectural design and
structures...

Our Assistant Principal and Head of Curriculum Development also noticed an increase in the
uptake of girls choosing Physics following the lessons where we used the 3Doodler. It really
provided a way of thinking that they could identify with.

Student Focus and ADHD

The St. Augustines pilot turned up evidence that incorporating

the 3Doodler into lessons can lead to enhanced levels of focus
and concentration. This is thought to be a result of the highly
detail-oriented and hands-on nature of working with the
3Doodler. Students were also motivated by the inclusion of such
an innovative product into their classrooms, in turn motivating
them to nish the tasks assigned work.

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Student:
The 3Doodler teaches
you to be steady, and
helps you think.

One student diagnosed with ADHD commented that the pen was helping them to learn to
concentrate, an outcome that has also been observed amongst other student groups in both the
US and the UK.
From an educator at St. Augustines:
Some children diagnosed with ADHD struggle to concentrate when taught with traditional
pedagogy. However, if we deliver teaching material in the form of a computer game we observed
that there is no problem with concentration or focus, and the same applied with the 3Doodler.
With the use of a template, the student maintained focus and was engaged throughout the task
set.

Additional Resources
Educators and students around the globe are experimenting and integrating the 3Doodler into
their teaching and learning. We are constantly discovering inspiring new ideas for the use of the
3Doodler in education.
Below is a list of further examples, along with curricular materials and other resources that will be
useful for educators the world-over:
Full Q&A with Jacqui Winn - Head of Technology at St. Augustines Catholic High School, Redditch:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3ilk916a0rczi0/Full%20Q%26A%20With%20Jacqui%20Winn.pdf?dl=0

Other Uses Within Education

3Doodler in Geometry: Fascinating World of Geometric Forms, University of Bologna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_x_RwlZvM
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWV8EmazidHZgYNxHItPDKA
http://prezi.com/xnscwp0sdxcd/laascinante-mondo-delle-forme/

Curricular Materials
Curricular materials are available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fkuir9mdxl3dr1y/AADzB9w7DZuAyTXwRWXekvOFa?dl=0
They include:
Bridge Design Unit
Bridge Design Templates

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