Work in Progress: Rapid Prototyping Instructional and Hands-on Delivery for K16

Rapid prototyping (RP) is a fifteen-year-old additive production technology and is becoming extremely popular in various fields. The current studies indicate that RP is almost an unknown concept for any K16 student and teacher. Tennessee Tech University (TTU) and Saddleback College have been collaborating on the development of various instructional tools for RP technology as part of an NSF Advanced Technological Education grant. The objective of their project is to expand and disseminate a cutting edge curriculum model in RP through hands-on workshops and development of instructional support materials for both students and teachers. This paper reports the current K16 RP workshop which is structured and implemented by the project partners. Comments received from the K16 workshop attendees indicate that they practiced this technology first time and found it very versatile for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education