Collaborative research: Creating an Upper Division Additive Manufacturing Course and Laboratory For Enhancing Undergraduate Research and Innovation

美国经济和社会理论家预测，增材制造（AM）预示着第三次工业革命的开始，接替自19世纪末以来主导制造业的生产线组装。AM，也称为3D打印，是指在计算机控制下通过打印连续的材料层来创建三维工件的过程。在过去十年中，3D打印机价格的大幅下降使其在本科工程实验室中相对常见，从而为学生提供了扩展AM第一手经验的机会。该项目的目标是帮助K-12学生和工程本科生了解AM，以便他们为美国制造业的复兴做好更好的准备。 学生的学习将得到实验室，项目，课程材料和一本关于AM的教科书的支持，这本教科书将在这个项目中开发。所涉及的机构是得克萨斯理工大学（TTU），一所具有高研究活动的大学（RU/H），加州州立大学，北岭，一所非博士授予机构，既是HSI（西班牙裔服务机构）和AANAPISI（亚裔美国土著太平洋岛民服务机构），堪萨斯州州立大学（KSU），EPSCoR和RU/H机构。通过创建AM课程，将实现以下目标：（1）开发智力严谨的课程材料（例如，教科书，实验室手册，讲座笔记），将通过硬拷贝和虚拟教室网站公开访问;（2）进行重要的教育研究，新的AM课程对学生态度和STEM自我效能的变化的影响，其结果将在工程和教育期刊上发表;（3）为K-12学生和创客空间用户开发简化的3D打印项目。工程本科生通过一对一的指导关系与K-12学生进行外联，将有助于通过创造对工程作为职业的兴奋和兴趣来建立K-12 STEM管道。

American economic and social theorists have predicted that Additive Manufacturing (AM) heralds the beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution, succeeding the production line assembly that has dominated manufacturing since the late 19th century. AM, also known as 3D printing, refers to a process used to create a three-dimensional artifact by printing successive layers of material under computer control. The significant drop in price of 3D printers over the last decade has made them relatively common in undergraduate engineering labs, thereby opening up the opportunity to provide students with extended first-hand experience of AM. The goal of the project is to help K-12 students and engineering undergraduates learn about AM so that they are better prepared for the renaissance in U.S. manufacturing. Student learning will be supported by the labs, projects, course materials, and a textbook on AM that will be developed during this project. The institutions involved are Texas Tech University (TTU), a university with high research activity (RU/H), California State University, Northridge, a non-PhD-granting institution that is both an HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) and an AANAPISI (Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution), and Kansas State University (KSU), both an EPSCoR and an RU/H institution. Through creation of the AM course, the following goals will be met: (1) the development of intellectually rigorous course materials (e.g., textbook, lab manual, lecture notes) that will be publicly accessible via hard copy and a virtual classroom website; (2) the conduct of important educational research on the impact of the new AM curricula on changes in student attitudes and self-efficacy in STEM, the results of which will be published in engineering and education journals; (3) the development of simplified 3D printing projects for K-12 students and Maker Space users. Outreach by engineering undergraduates to K-12 students through one-on-one mentoring relationships will help to build the K-12 STEM pipeline by creating excitement and interest in engineering as a career.