90).Īnother recent case study by Dilling and Vogler ( 2021) provides insight into the possibilities of fostering spatial ability through such software in secondary school. Furthermore, Dilling and Witzke ( 2020b) describe how primary students use 3D printing technology, combined with the CAD program SketchUp, in a learning unit about tessellation in geometry lessons and state that digital media could raise various challenges (i.e., virtual enactivity and technical problems), in addition to different advantages, such as precision (p. Recent research indicates how 3D printing technology can be implemented in mathematics classes in (upper) secondary school, for example, to explore central concepts of calculus (Dilling & Witzke, 2020a). As several research projects have already shown (Dilling & Vogler, 2021 Dilling & Witzke, 2020a, b Gibson et al., 2014 Pielsticker, 2021 Pielsticker & Witzke, 2022 Ng, 2017 Ng & Sinclair, 2018 Ng et al., 2018), this program affords students of all ages a good start in 3D printing technology. Tinkercad is a web-based, free-to-use CAD program by Autodesk ( 2020) “ that helps people all over the world think, create, and make.” Compared with other such programs, Tinkercad inherits a particularly intuitive approach of modeling three-dimensional (3D) objects directly, providing easy access to such software for first-time users, such as elementary school students.

Before we analyze the collected data, the software the students used is presented.

Tinker cad software