Promoting Junior School Students' Spatial Ability through 3D Printing

Spatial ability is an important part of human intelligence, which plays an important role in promoting STEM learning and career choice. In order to explore the promotion mechanism of 3D printing technology on spatial ability, this study designs and develops a “STEM Teaching Implementation Model Integrating 3D Printing” based on the CDIO. To examine the effect of the new model, a quasi-experimental method is conducted. 45 junior middle school students were divided into an experimental group and a control group and received traditional 3D printing teaching and 3D printing teaching based on the CDIO model respectively. The spatial ability of students and artifacts were evaluated, accompanied by semi-structured interviews. The results show that the 3D printing teaching based on CDIO significantly enhances the spatial ability of junior middle school students, especially the more complex spatial visualization ability; And the promotion effect on girls is more significant. The study suggests that teachers can adopt individualized teaching methods in face-to-face and in the online environment to improve the effective and all-around development of students' spatial ability.