Left: The Spikesman, student-designed chess piece. Right: Angelheart, student-designed chess piece.

Meera Ramanathan

In 2022, I received a grant from the VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts) Foundationʼs VAPA Enhancement Program (VEP) to purchase a 3D printer for my art room. I had seen posts from teachers on social media about the 3D-printing lessons they were implementing, and I was excited about the different possibilities for my own students. After researching printers, I decided on the Flashforge Finder 3 and twelve filaments in various colors. I couldn’t wait to start using it with my fifth-graders!

I am pleased to share with you a 3D-printing lesson I implemented involving chess pieces.

The Essential Question
This was our first-ever 3D printing lesson, and I wanted students to come up with a creative solution to a problem. I gave them the following prompt: “If you could change one piece in a chess game, what would it look like, what would its name be, and how would it move?”

In Preparation
I created a slideshow presentation for students that explained the game and included samples of chess pieces that I designed.

This was our first-ever 3D printing lesson, and I wanted students to come up with a creative solution to a problem.

During our first class, we studied images of chess pieces and discussed how every piece has a different name, function, and position in the game. I brought my chess set from home and demonstrated the placement of the pieces, their names, and how they move on the board. For example, the queen can move any number of spaces in any direction, while the king can move only one space in any direction.

Think-Pair-Share
Students worked in pairs to develop a new chess piece. Each pair had to come up with a name for their piece, sketch what it would look like, and determine where it would be placed and how it would move.

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