Using Neuroscience and 3D printing to help kids learn to read

Sight word charm mockup

“Sight words” are a cornerstone for Kindergarten education, and are driving my oldest kiddo crazy. These ~100 words are crucial for quick recognition in reading, and require an intense amount of repetitive practice with very little dopamine pay-offs. Naturally, it has been difficult to keep them interested in learning this list when all they want to do is talk about Pokémon (“Gotta Catch ‘Em All!”). This got me thinking: there are WAY more Pokémon (1,025) than sight words (100). What if we could leverage her current developmental stage’s interests (collecting things) to help her with this homework?

At this point, “gamification” entered the chat.

What if we turn this into a game where they earn a necklace charms for every new sight word they learn? The moment I had this idea, I knew I had to try.

Here was the process:

1. Figma Game Planning
2. Sourcing Materials
3. OpenSCAD .stl file Generation
4. PrusaSlicer .stl → .gcode File Conversion
5. Adding A Pause In The .gcode File
6. Printing

Step 1: Figma Game Planning