Teach Design & Technology Curriculum

Makers Empire is an award-winning, evidence-based teaching tool to help primary, elementary and middle school teachers engage students in design and technology and cover the required curriculum.

Makers Empire helps busy teachers harness the power of 3D technology to make learning fun whilst teaching students important Design Thinking, STEM and 21st-century skills.

Makers Empire’s plans include everything teachers need to plan, teach and assess student work against Design and Technology curriculum with 3D design and 3D printing.

In this page, we share some of the ways Makers Empire tools and resources can be used to teach Design and Technology curriculum.

An All-In-One Solution

Area

Curriculum

Grades

Curriculum

Our in-app challenge courses, daily challenges and monthly competitions are aligned to:

Next Generation Science Standards
International Baccalaureate
National Curriculum (UK)
The Australian Curriculum
NSW Curriculum
Victorian Curriculum

The 150+ lesson plans in the Teacher Dashboard are aligned to all of the above curriculum as well as the Common Core State Standards.

Student workbooks and teacher guides can be aligned to the above standards and others as required.

K-8

Teaching and Learning

Professional development

Train the trainer
Blended online
Self paced online
‘Learning by Design’ course

K-8

Student Tools

Makers Empire 3D design software

Basic and pro tutorials
Challenge courses
Design competitions
Windows, Chromebooks, Macs, Android, iPads
Offline mode

K-8

Teacher Tools

Makers Empire Teacher’s Dashboard

View and manage students and their designs
Access teacher resources and online professional development

K-8

Technical

Customised software development
Integration

K-8

Makers Empire Curriculum

Based on, and aligned to the above curriculum, the Makers Empire Design Curriculum describes the development of skills, knowledge and understandings across K-6. It aims to help students:

develop confidence as designers and problem solvers;
use design thinking processes to generate & communicate design ideas;
produce designed solutions suitable for a range of technologies contexts by selecting and manipulating a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment creatively, competently and safely; and managing processes;
evaluate processes and designed solutions and transfer knowledge and skills to new situations;
become competent users of 3D design and 3D printing;
develop spatial awareness; and
understand how technology is and can be used to develop designed solutions in real-world contexts and for a range of users.

In-App Challenge Courses

Makers Empire’s Challenge Courses are accessed through Challenge Central in the Makers Empire app. Each course is carefully aligned to curriculum outcomes and is designed to be completed over a series of lessons.

Teachers, for example, might plan to have their students work through a Challenge Course for one lesson per week over a term. Over that term, students will be addressing all aspects of the Design and Technologies curriculum without teachers needing to do any extra planning.

Each course contains four different activities:

Videos: we introduce information and ideas.
Quizzes: students test their knowledge and understanding in a Game Show style multiple-choice quiz.
Pro-training tutorials: students are led step-by-step to design some cool things and learn new skills.
Design challenges: students are given an open-ended design challenge or problem to solve.

Professional Development - Train the Trainer Programs

Through our custom professional learning programs, teachers learn how to use 3D and design to transform the way they teach Design and Technology curriculum and STEM subjects and help students develop important design thinking and 21st-century learning skills.

We’ve delivered 3D technology to groups of 200+ schools in Australia, America and the Middle East so we have the experience, the skills and team to deliver a successful program for you.

Makers Empire can provide curriculum, 3D software (Makers Empire 3D), teacher resources, training and support to train teachers so they can successfully deliver the program. Makers Empire’s learning team can also provide development, review of student workbooks and teacher guides.

Example Lesson Plans

AMAZING MAZES
Grades: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Subjects: Science, Technologies

Students design and 3D print a maze that can be used with a 3mm ball bearing. Building 3D mazes is a great way for students to explore spatial concepts, solve problems and build structures within design constraints provided.

CHOCOLATE MOULDS
Grades: 5, 6
Subjects: Mathematics, Technologies

Students learn about measuring volumes and capacity by designing and printing a chocolate mould. They will design moulds for making individual chocolates and calculate the capacity of their chocolate moulds.

ENTREPRENEURS UNITED
Grades: 7, 8
Subjects: Technologies, Economics

Students investigate the attributes and skills of successful entrepreneurs. They use design thinking processes to plan an entrepreneurial venture and develop 3D printed prototypes of their ideas.

Case Study: UAE Country-Wide Rollout

Makers Empire partnered with Dubai-based education consultancy company, Ibtikar, to deliver a country-wide rollout of 3D technology into over 200 primary schools in 2018/2019 for the United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Education (MoE).

To achieve the country-wide rollout, Makers Empire provided curriculum, 3D software, teacher resources, training and support to train MoE teachers to successfully deliver the new program. This transfer of knowledge and skills in Design Thinking and Maker pedagogy was integral to the program’s success and the MoE teachers’ professional development.

After the success with Grade 7 students in 2018/2019, MoE deployed Makers Empire to all students in Grades 5 and 3 in 2019/2020 and 2021/2021

School Case Studies

Why a Veteran EdTech Teacher in New York’s Westbury School District Chose Makers Empire

Milagros Henriquez-Santiago is the Educational Technology Coach K-5 and the Robotics Coach for Park Avenue School in New York. We spoke with her to learn why she chose Makers Empire.

How a Teacher in Dubai Teaches Design Thinking and PBL with Makers Empire

Reham Eid is a teacher and former architect living in Dubai. We spoke to her to learn more about how she is using Makers Empire in her classroom to teach STEAM and project-based learning.

So You Have a 3D printer – Now What? A Frank Account of 3D Printing in the Classroom

Christopher Burdman is a grade 3-5 STEM teacher at Joseph P Tyan Elementary School in Boston. Here he shares a frank and engaging account of his 3D journey and his top tips for teachers.

What Teachers Say About Makers Empire

"The software is easy to use and kid-friendly... The curriculum has been great and it even fits into the objectives that I am currently teaching... When we first started using the curriculum I thought it was going to be a huge task getting my students to learn this. But instead of teaching, I have become a facilitator. They have really taken off and are helping each other solve problems. When we end our day I may about 20 designs that were created, but when we start the next day I see that number increase to about 50. They are designing at home."

"I have been doing 3D design and printing for about four years. I have used many programs including Sketchup, 123dDesign and Tinkercad. I am always looking for new programs and ran across Makers Empire when searching for 3D programs and ideas… I immediately was interested in the idea of a curriculum and being able to have classes… I signed up for the trial first and fell in love with the format… I also loved the different areas that the students could explore and that they could work at home as well. It is very engaging and my students love it! I like that I can set challenges and that they can also follow the challenges from the curriculum."

"When I started using Makers Empire with the kids they really took to it. I think that we had 5,000 designs within a month’s time! I had seven classrooms at the school using it. And I had other teachers saying, ‘I really want to get in on this. I want to try this with our kids,’... I feel like Makers Empire is a game changer for 3D design for our kids. There’s a lot of software out there but Makers Empire has incorporated so many different features. With the challenges and then the tutorials built in, no one else has that."

“This has been a wonderful new way to teach and motivate my students... They are beginning to see real-life implications to what they learning to do in class and how they could develop prototypes of objects that they could develop and then produce to sell...The overall enthusiasm towards school and learning has increased tremendously... typically reluctant learners have come to life!"

"We appreciated that the Makers Empire trainers were dedicated educators, with former classroom teaching experience. They helped our teachers understand how to use the printers and program but most importantly how to thoughtfully integrate the application in the classroom."

“The software has lesson plans based on many state standards with many modules to choose from. Makers Empire can be used to teach science, math and even art, K-12. The 3D-printing course was not as challenging as the grade level I was given — first graders!... However, their enthusiasm and absolute thirst for knowledge is awesome to see. They blaze through the challenging 3D lesson plans."

Teach Design & Technology Curriculum

An All-In-One Solution

Area

Curriculum

Grades

Our in-app challenge courses, daily challenges and monthly competitions are aligned to:

Next Generation Science Standards

International Baccalaureate

National Curriculum (UK)

The Australian Curriculum

NSW Curriculum

Victorian Curriculum

The 150+ lesson plans in the Teacher Dashboard are aligned to all of the above curriculum as well as the Common Core State Standards.

Student workbooks and teacher guides can be aligned to the above standards and others as required.

K-8

Professional development

Train the trainer

Blended online

Self paced online

‘Learning by Design’ course

K-8

Makers Empire 3D design software

Basic and pro tutorials

Challenge courses

Design competitions

Windows, Chromebooks, Macs, Android, iPads

Offline mode

K-8

Makers Empire Teacher’s Dashboard

View and manage students and their designs

Access teacher resources and online professional development

K-8

Customised software development

Integration

K-8