Using 3D printing technology with experiential learning strategies to improve preengineering students' comprehension of abstract scientific concepts and hands-on ability

This study combined 3D printing technology with experiential learning strategies (ELS) to design a hands-on curriculum for preengineering students. The participants learned interdisciplinary knowledge and abstract scientific concepts through the curriculum. The study implemented a quasi-experimental design to examine whether the students who learned using the 3D printing technology with ELS demonstrated better learning performances regarding the comprehension of abstract scientific concepts and hands-on ability. This study selected 184 10th-grade students from five classes, which were divided into three groups. The experimental process was conducted over a period of 11 weeks (for a total duration of 960 min). It was found that all of the preengineering students improved their comprehension of abstract scientific concepts. The students who learned using the 3D printing technology understood abstract scientific concepts better than those who learned using the traditional hands-on tools, and the students who learned using the 3D printing technology with ELS demonstrated better hands-on ability than the other two groups. Using 3D printing technology with ELS resulted in significant positive effects on the participants' handmade processes, in which the students reinforced the connection between knowledge and handmade products, resulting in better comprehension of abstract scientific concepts and hands-on ability.