You have a 3D printer, of course, and you’re wondering how to use your newfound super-powers for good rather than evil.
Thingiverse is the place for you.
Since 2008 the folks at Thingiverse have been assembling the world’s largest and most interesting collection of 3D printer designs and ideas. There are currently over 800,000 thingies in the Thingiverse repository, most of them released with Creative Commons licenses.
We’ve chosen cryptography as our subject this time around because our publisher is a math whiz/dork and thinks you should be too. This particular lesson, Cryptography: Sending Secret Messages is nominally mathematics but an area of math that touches everyone who’s ever used a password online. The creator/designer, Elana Reiser, is the same woman who wrote the delightful and useful, Teaching Mathematics Using Popular Culture, so you know it rules.
In keeping with the educational spirit, it has a good lesson plan to go with its 3D practicum, so teachers can follow their students, who probably know more about 3D printing than they let on.
A perfect opportunity to have some fun with your MakerBot printer. What are you waiting for?
