Ryan Cain

“[Students] need to learn how to have fun with these concepts in school so they can have can idea of where a career could take them, so they will stick out that hard math class.”

Walking into Ryan Cain’s workspace at the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences department, you may feel like you’ve wandered onto the Island of Misfit Toys: mini robots with swinging arms, etched with an Aggie “A.” A monster, sewn with stainless steel wire that sings when you squeeze it. Baseball caps embedded with Christmas lights that utilizes GPS to light up uniquely based on location.

What may seem like mere entertainment may actually be a key to engaging elementary students in engineering, science and math, Cain says.

Cain is a PDRF and graduate student teacher researching how to support teachers by integrating 3D printing into the classroom as a teaching tool. Though a relatively new technology, Cain says 3D printing helps students gains hands-on experience with design by developing spatial skills that they might not have otherwise.

“If we can help students learn to go back and forth from the virtual space to the actual 3D space, we can really help them learn critical problem solving skills,” Cain said. “My goal isn’t to have every kid come up with this invention and become a millionaire. They just need to know what’s possible, that this is a tool they can be creative with, that they can experience success with.”