www.3ders.org

Dec 7, 2015 | By Alec

That making things tangible can make them far easier to understand is hardly surprising, as we’ve previously seen in these educational toys for the blind. However, people with perfect eyesight can also benefit from this approach, as Dr. Kathrine Holt, who teaches palynology (the study of pollen) at the Massey University in New Zealand discovered. To help her students better understand and recognize pollen, she recently made large-scale, tangible 3D printed versions. Pollen, which are normally too small for the human eye, are suddenly thus becoming real and visible.

Dr Katherine Holt works at the Massey University School Institute of Agriculture and Environment, and found that her students had difficulty recognizing different kinds of pollen under a basic transmitted light microscope. They all only knew pollen from textbook drawings, but these obviously don’t always capture the complexity of the real, microscopic three dimensional objects – which are thus seen in 2D.

So why not study them in 3D, dr. Holt thought. With the help of the Manawatū Microscopy and Imaging Centre and the Massey University School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, this is exactly what they developed. ‘I had seen people making 3D models of pollen that could then be viewed on a computer. I thought, why not take this one step further and print them out in 3D? What surprised me is that it’s a really simple idea but no one had actually done it before,’ she says. Together with specialists from the imaging center, Holt developed four 3D images of tree pollen native to New Zealand: Red Beech, Matai, Mountain Toa Toa and Rangiora. These were made with a scanning confocal microscope, which has the ability to optically section pollen granules – which are inherently fluorescent.

According to Dr Matthew Savoian, who leads the imaging center, this is just one combination of 3D printing and another technology, though a lot is possible with these technology fusions that no one is doing yet. ‘The wonderful thing about the centre is we can see what’s feasible as well as the limitations of any particular technology,’ he adds.

These 3D renderings were further improved upon by fourth year Bachelor of Engineering student Ben Pedersen, who used a process called deconvolution to vastly improve the data sets. Through a mathematical approach that took the behaviour of the microscope and the pollen in mind, a special algorithm was used to maximize image resolution and remove any of the fuzziness sometimes seen in such computer models.

Turning to 3D printing, the team then experimented with both FDM and SLS 3D printers to scale the selection of pollen by anywhere to 2000 to 3000 times actual size – perfect for holding in your hand and really getting to grips with the proportion, texture and shape. Dr. Holt further said that she was very pleased with the results, as these were far more accurate than, say, handcrafted wooden models. ‘I used to use balloons or plasticine to demonstrate pollen morphology to students but there’s something about knowing this is based on the actual thing that makes it amazing. It’s a great way to expand our resources for teaching,’ she says.

The doctor further added that this same principle could have far reaching educational consequences for students of any level. ‘Anything on the microscopic scale can be blown up, while anything really large, like a mammoth skeleton, can be scaled down. Just imagine: every high school could have their own pollen models or even their own replica moa bones!,’ she says. Dr. Savoian added that the expertise of the imaging center, which is free to use for students, is a perfect and accessible vehicle for such 3D printing innovations.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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