Educational Psychologist Story: How 3D Printing Became My Next Teaching Tool

“We should start a 3D printing business.”

When my brother first suggested this, I didn’t say no. But I wasn’t ready to say yes either.

I had just finished my master’s in educational psychology. I was finally an expert in something I loved, working in a field that felt like home. Starting a business in 3D printing meant learning a completely new skill from scratch: Technology, engineering, equipment I’d never touched…

It felt like too much, too soon. So I stayed on the sidelines while my brother explored the idea.

Finding My Place in Education

At the time, I was working as a Team Development Manager at Green School. My days were spent teaching teachers, introducing them to positive education techniques, showing them how yoga could become a teaching instrument, guiding them through mindfulness practices and breathing exercises for classroom management. 

Everything I did had one purpose: enhancing the teaching experience and, ultimately, the learning experience of children. I loved that work. I was good at it. 

But there was something about my role that kept me curious. As someone responsible for the school’s development, I couldn’t afford to ignore new teaching methods. So even as I hesitated about the business idea, I kept my ear to the ground. What were other schools doing? What tools were making a difference?

3D printing kept coming up.

The Slow Build of Interest

At first, it was just background noise. Then it became interesting. Then it became fascinating.

I started reading about classrooms where students were designing prototypes for real problems. About biology teachers printing anatomical models students could hold and examine. About geometry lessons that suddenly made sense when abstract concepts became tangible objects.

The more I learned, the more I saw connections to everything I was already teaching. This wasn’t just technology. It was experiential learning. It was student agency. It was creativity made concrete.

My brother’s business idea started to look different. Maybe this wasn’t about leaving my field. Maybe it was about expanding it.

The Conversation That Changed Everything

Then came the moment that crystallized it all.

I was at school one day when I accidentally overheard our CEO and COO talking about 3D printing. They were discussing it in general terms – the potential, the possibilities. But by then, I wasn’t starting from zero anymore. Those weeks of gathering information, of getting genuinely excited about what this could mean for learning, had prepared me for this moment.

I knew enough to see where this could go. I understood what teachers would need. I could envision how this fit into everything I’d been teaching about experiential learning and student engagement.

Before I could second-guess myself, I spoke up: “I could lead that project.”

When Purpose Meets Opportunity

That’s how it started. Not with excitement about technology, but with clarity about purpose. My brother had the technical knowledge. I had the education expertise and the relationships with schools who needed this.

Together, we had something worth building.

The project I proposed wasn’t just about delivering a printer. It was about finding the right equipment, training teachers to integrate it into their practice, and creating a sustainable model for 3D printing in education.

Once I almost said no to 3D printing (and I’m so glad I didn’t) and then I had gone from “not interested” to leading our first project – at the very school where I worked.