Open3D-Education

Summary

Open3D-Education (open3d-education) is a collaborative open educational resource (Recurso Educacional Aberto, REA) repository supporting the university course Criação de Elementos Educacionais com Impressão 3D (Creation of Educational Elements with 3D Printing), taught by Andre Belem within the Observatório Oceanográfico at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Brazil. The repository organizes, documents, and shares student projects across semesters, focusing on producing physical didactic resources through 3D modeling and printing. The course integrates three axes: designing educational objects with explicit pedagogical intent; fundamentals of digital fabrication and print preparation; and technical documentation with reflection on real teaching contexts. Projects — organized by semester under projetos/ (e.g., 2026-1, 2026-2) — must include editable/final 3D models (.stl, .3mf, .step, .obj), slicing profiles, Markdown documentation (README, technical sheet, pedagogical plan), assembly images, references, and a declared license. Projects are designed for use in schools, laboratories, extension projects, or teacher-training settings, weighing accessibility, safety, cost, and reproducibility. The repository itself is MIT-licensed, with contribution guidelines, templates, and guides (docs/guia-impressao-3d.md, docs/boas-praticas-documentacao.md) to keep submissions consistent; each cohort extends and improves a living collection.

Guiding Principles

Open Source: The repository is an explicitly open educational resource under the MIT license, requiring per-project licenses, attribution, and reusable file formats.
Youth Empowerment: University students are the producers: each cohort builds real teaching materials for schools and documents them for the next cohort.
Decolonizing Education: A Portuguese-language, Global-South university initiative producing locally relevant, low-cost didactic materials for Brazilian schools and teacher training, rather than importing proprietary kits.

Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills

Learners gain 3D Printing and CAD skills (modeling, slicing, print-parameter documentation), Project Management (versioned deliverables, licensing, technical writing), and Sustainability Literacy (cost- and reproducibility-conscious design for real classrooms). Educators elsewhere gain a reusable template for running a similar course: folder conventions, contribution rules, and documentation standards that turn coursework into a durable public collection.

How to Replicate or Build On It

Clone or fork the GitHub repository and read docs/index.md, docs/como-contribuir.md, and the 3D-printing guide.
Reuse the templates/ folder to standardize your own students' project submissions.
Follow the per-project requirements: clear folder name, technical files, pedagogical plan, print parameters, estimated print time and filament use, and license.
Run the course by semester, archiving each cohort under projetos/<year-semester>/ so later classes improve earlier work.
Contribute improvements back via pull request under the repository's code of conduct and contribution guide.

Considerations & Constraints

Cost: Free repository; replication requires access to a 3D printer and filament.
Skill Level: Intermediate; aimed at university students with guidance from the instructor.
Space/Climate: Classroom/makerspace; climate-independent.
Tools Required: Git/GitHub workflow, 3D modeling and slicing software, a 3D printer.
Ongoing Maintenance: Low — maintained through successive course cohorts; large-file discipline required by the contribution rules.
Access Barriers: Documentation is in Portuguese only, which limits direct adoption by non-Portuguese speakers; no English translation at verification time.

Prerequisites

Basic computer literacy and familiarity with Git are helpful; the repository's own guides cover printing and documentation fundamentals.

Primary Source

https://github.com/observatorio-oceanografico/open3d-education — official open repository (MIT license) for the UFF Observatório Oceanográfico course.