PrintLab provides educators with certified professional development and a comprehensive library of ready-to-teach resources

Projects come with a teacher instructions pop-out menu, which provide you with step-by-step lesson plan instructions. They also include editable assessment rubrics and are aligned to the following standards: NGSS, ISTE, UK National Curriculum, and Australian Curriculum for Design and Technologies (v9).

As students move through each stage of a project, the learning platform guides them in filling in a Google Slides template to document their design process - resulting in a beautiful and professional portfolio of work that can be assessed using the included rubric. The portfolio is optional and you are free to advise students to document their work in alternative ways.

Our certification program is designed to equip you with practical, in-demand skills in 3D CAD, 3D printing, and design innovation. While the digital badges are not formal qualifications, they serve as verifiable, shareable micro-credentials recognised by educational institutions and industry professionals.

Many organisations value digital badges, especially from established brands like PrintLab, because they demonstrate your expertise and commitment to continuous learning. By displaying these credentials on your resume, portfolio, or social media, you can stand out to employers and showcase your hands-on experience and accomplishments in the field.

PrintLab resources are suitable for users of ages 10+. Our customers range from Elementary/Primary schools to top-tier Universities. In the teacher instructions (where relevant), we suggest various ways in which you can adapt projects and challenges for both younger/beginner students and older/advanced students.

Many of our users teach Design, Technology or Engineering classes but several projects have cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as Science, History and Geography. We have seen great success with our site license users, where Design teachers provide support and guidance for teachers in other subjects.

To make the most out of your PrintLab experience, you'll need access to a 3D printers, filament and computers with internet access. In terms of software to design 3D models, you can either use Tinkercad (for beginners) or Fusion (for intermediate-advanced users). Both options are developed by Autodesk and are completely free for education.

PrintLab was built as a flexible library of resources that you can pick and choose from depending on your curriculum requirements, student skill level and personal preference. We do however recommend following the certification pathway by starting with a selection of mini courses, progressing to projects, and finally tackling challenges for a comprehensive learning experience.

After many discussions with teachers, we opted to keep PrintLab as a quick-access training toolkit with no student accounts/logins. They simply click the share link provided to them to access the chosen resource learning platform. There are 2 main reasons for this:

Firstly, the 3D design software packages we use in our curriculum (Tinkercad and Autodesk Fusion) have a range of classroom management tools available, where you can monitor student work. We designed our platform to work cohesively with these rather than to replicate their features or have additional login processes.

Secondly, when documenting their design process in a portfolio format, we didn’t want to limit what applications are used. Some schools might use the Google suite, others might use Canva or Adobe software. So again, we want to keep our focus on creating training material and tools, which work cohesively with applications that are actually dedicated to classroom management and that teachers are already familiar with.

With our standard teacher license, you can generate a share link for up to 3 resources at once. This means you can teach multiple classes and they can even access PrintLab at home. You can unshare resources at any time and select a different resource to share. A share link allows up to 35 students on the learning platform at any one time. The teacher license also allows you to certify up to 35 students through the certification program.

With our site license, your school can have UNLIMITED teacher accounts, each teacher can generate UNLIMITED share links, and you can certify an UNLIMITED number of students. *Please note that all teachers/students must be part of the same individual school and all licenses expire exactly 1 year after the first license is activated. For multiple schools or district pricing, please email hello@weareprintlab.com.

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Makerspaces can utilise PrintLab just like schools, with instructors taking on the role of teachers to offer in-person workshops and certifications to members. Alternatively, you can share resources online, allowing members to complete courses at their own pace and then bring their creations to life using your makerspace's 3D printers.