portraits

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17

McLean remembers the day a state of the art 3D 
printer arrived in her classroom. It was the size 
of a refrigerator. “I remember them telling me 
the plastic and resin that built it was $5 a cubic 
inch,” says Holly. “Never in a million years did I 

imagine we would have the handheld 3D printers available today.”

That was ten years ago. Holly was an engineering teacher at AISD’s Amarillo Area Center 

for Advanced Learning (AACAL) campus when her classroom became one of the district’s 
fi rst to have 3D printing technology. Though 3D printing dates back to the 1980s, and the 
days of the now archaic dot matrix printer, it is technology that has since become widely 
attainable (read: affordable) for households, offi ces, and for classrooms. 

The refrigerator-sized 3D printer that sat in Holly’s classroom back in the day dwarfs the 

brand new desktop model Brad Phillips’ 6th graders are breaking in. A peek into Brad’s class 
at Travis 6th grade campus gives a glimpse of the 3D printer quietly stacking a special fi ber 
called fi lament, layer by layer, to create a vase, a bowl, even a complete chess set.  Last year, 
Brad bought a 3D printer for his home but decided to do some experiments with it in the 
classroom. It was such a hit, he bought a new one this year, specifi cally for his classroom. 
“They just sat there and watched,” says Brad of the day he unveiled the new Dremel desktop 
3D printer. “As soon as they saw it and I explained what it was, it was crazy to see their 
minds going.” 

Classes like Brad’s are one way Amarillo ISD is putting next-generation technology tools 

in the hands of students every day. But Amarillo ISD’s own technology revolution extends 
beyond 3D printers, introducing students to concepts that will inspire tomorrow’s next big 
things. Many classrooms are now entirely paperless. Makerspaces are being incorporated at 
more and more campuses. These dynamic learning centers are stocked with techno tools 
like Sphero robots, modular robotics, coding and animation software, aerodynamics and 
even drones, all to inspire the creativity and innovation required of 21st century scholars. 

It is play with purpose, says Holly, now one of the district’s digital learning leaders. 

“We don’t do technology for the sake of just doing technology,” she says. “We do our due 
diligence to investigate different tools and make sure it’s a good fi t for what students are 
learning in their core classes. We want technology to tie in to every level of the curriculum.” 

As a digital learning leader, Holly’s job is to help classrooms do just that. With the district’s 

Profi le of a Graduate initiative, integrating and emphasizing technology in classwork is a 
priority. Holly says it is a game changer for students and teachers. “Students are used to 
teachers delivering information and then they regurgitate that on a test. However, the focus 
now is taking a lesson and doing something you could never do before without a particular 
tool,” she says. “We’ve changed the rules on them. We are now guiding them to be curators 
of their own knowledge.”  

With the same 3D printer Holly McLean’s AACAL students pioneered in 2007, Lindy 

Hopper’s engineering design classes at Amarillo High create prototypes of mechanical 
parts such as threads and fasteners. The nuts and bolts behind this course is to tangibly 
demonstrate the importance of precision in manufacturing. “We’re talking about 
thousandths of an inch. They have to use industry standard thread forms and make a bolt 
and matching nut,” says Lindy. “We then print them out in 3D to check tolerance and make 
sure they thread properly. And students get to keep it. It’s something they can take home 
besides a piece of paper.” 

Second-and third-year students in Lindy’s classes fi nish the course with more than just 

scale models of the tools they create. They earn college credit and industry certifi cation for 
Autodesk Inventor software.  “We teach college curriculum and they receive college credit 
that transfers to Amarillo College and four-year universities,” says Lindy. “There’s a lot of 
math and science involved, so breaking it down to things that are fun and interesting to the 
students where they can relate how they’ll use it later on is very important.”

Brad’s classes at Travis 6th are working toward that same goal, learning to look at the 

world around them and imagine how they can contribute solutions to problems. “Down 
the line I’d like to start focusing on how they can help their community. What are some 
problems they could solve with the things available to them? I want them to think, ‘Here’s 
what I think is a problem and here’s how I can fi x it,” says Brad. “If you can think it, you can 
design it, you can print it and you can make it real.” 

We don’t do technology 

for the sake of just doing 

technology,” she says. 

“We do our due diligence 

to investigate different 

tools and make sure 

it’s a good fi t for what 

students are learning in 

their core classes. We 

want technology to tie 

in to every level of 

the curriculum.”