Kideville, is a collaborative city design project for children, with a full curriculum for teachers. Each student gets a design brief for a building, and they are guided through a term-long process of research, ideation, sketching, urban planning, 3D design and printing. This curriculum includes teamwork, project management and practical skills that equip children for jobs of the future.
3D design can be a hard subject to teach, but it is a crucial one to sustain the quality of modern education. Our curriculum was designed by academics and tested with children of different ages to find the best learning methods and processes. The Kideville lesson plans enable educators to carry out 14 effective lessons without investing hours into preparation. We are delivering the value of years of on-site academic research, and the security of an effective teaching plan, all into a purchasable kit.
For any further questions, please refer to the FAQ page
The Kideville project is highly collaborative. Both the teacher and students are involved in the creation of the Kideville island and settle upon its shores together. The whole class will develop an affection for the island as students design their homes on it, and then gather to provide the island with all the necessary facilities. Agreements are to be reached to decide where to place the buildings: this encourages children to discuss and share ideas on urban planning. The process is a constant mix of individual responsibilities and collaborative decisions.
Kideville introduces children to practical 3D modelling and 3D printing skills. Kideville encourages children to reconnect the physical and digital worlds though making, and learn the value of computer aided design. Through the project, the students will learn about 3D and spacial geometry and understand scale and proportions in both virtual and real environments. Most importantly, our product makes it easy and effective for teachers to deliver 3D Design lessons.
Much like a game, each student is assigned a creative mission, based on their interests, that takes them through a full design and project management process. The teacher curates this journey that includes research, ideation, sketching, CAD modelling, 3D printing and presenting. Kideville inspires students to obtain the skills and knowledge in STEM and pursue careers in design, technology and engineering. Our curriculum learning materials are filled with lesson plans and activities, which help educators guide their students though the design process.
Thousands of boys and girls around the world who participated in Kidesign activities helped us develop a formula for an educational process that is collaborative, cross-disciplinary and fun. In these five years, our team has learned what motivates children and what experiences stand out in their memories. We believe that the best education is hands-on and that is why Kideville encourages learning through making. Making sketches, making models, making mistakes. And then again making!
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Kideville begins with a board representing an ocean.
An island is crowd-formed, setting a stage for making, as well as obstacles.
Children design their residential houses and settle on the island.
They are introduced to a town planning brief.
Research begins on their building.
Followed by lessons on sketching.
CAD Modeling.
And finally building on the island through 3D printing.
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The kit includes:
- Kideville Ocean Board (60x45cm)
- Teacher's Handbook (A4 colour)
- 14 Lesson Plans for a Term-long Project
- 20+ Instructional Videos
- Digital Pack with 3D CAD Project Files
- Student Packs with Student Portfolios, Island tiles and Design Brief Card Packs
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Children from different schools across the world have designed and built unique 3D printed Kideville cities. Scroll down to find out more.
London, UK
Jubilee Primary School in South London has never experienced 3D Printing and CAD before using the Kideville kit. From our point of view, the biggest success was seeing how the class managed to produce such amazing design results without any prior knowledge in what is known to be a challenging subject area, including CAD, 3D Geometry, Orthographics, Architectural briefs. In fact, a lot of the students didn’t express much interest in creative subjects at the start, but by the end, only 6 weeks later were very excited to become designers and architects.
“I just wanted to reiterate my gratitude for sharing the project with us, it was a really fantastic experience for the children.”
Liam Curd, teacher
“I wanted to become a scientist but now I want to be an architect as well.”
Maria, Year 5 student
“My favourite part of the workshop was designing shapes into buildings.”
Kyle, Year 5 student
One of the first schools that implemented Kideville into their Design Technology curriculum was the Clevedon Secondary School. Their head of DT, Dave White, who was already experienced with 3D Printing was very keen to teach his students about design and architecture through a new activity that was fun for the whole group and lasted for several weeks. We were delighted to get very positive feedback both from Mr. White and the students, who enjoyed the project, even without the novelty “wow” factor of 3D Printing and CAD, as they were all well familiar with it.
“Really excited to be a part of the KIDEVILLE experience.“
“Lots of secondary schools have machines (but have limited ideas of how to use it with younger
students)... so a Kideville pack is perfect for these.”
Dave White, head of DT
North Somerset, UK
Red Maids Junior School was one of the first schools in the UK to bring 3D Printing and the Kideville curriculum into the classroom. A group of Year 5 and 6 students built a fantastic model of a city with all its facilities and buildings. Most of all we noted the fact that their teacher was able to deliver the programme with ease, with no expertise and experience in 3D design and engineering.
“Half term is nearly upon us and I cannot tell you how successful your project has been.”
“It has been a resounding success both in its educational value and how it has inspired and opened the eyes of a group of 34 nine and ten year old girls into the world of design.“
Margaret Edbrooke, teacher
“Thank you soooo much for picking us to do Kideville. I am sooo grateful, it was really fun, I didn’t know it would be so much enjoyable! It’s really cool to just walk past a year 6 [student] and tell them all about it [Kideville]! The whole idea was ming boggling! How did you create such an inspiring programme?”
Gwennie, Year 5 student
“Please can you make another project so we can use it again and enjoy ourselves again. I’m sad because we have nearly finished the project”
Freya, Year 5 students
Bristol, UK
The ADEC School workshops were run as a summer programme with 6 different Abu Dhabi schools in the UAE. Designengineering teachers delivered the 14lesson activity to a total of 150 primary school students that made 6 unique Kideville islands. None of them have used 3D software and 3D Printers before.
“The Kideville experience has been one of a kind for me as an instructor and for the kids as their first
hands on experience with delicate machines like the 3D printers.“
Yousteena William, teacher
“Taking in consideration that students have no background about 3d printing or 3d design, Kideville was a great product that introduces them to the fundamentals of 3d design and the engineering design process. Students should work collaboratively to accomplish the project but at the same time each has their own role to achieve within the project.“
Samia Mohamed, teacher
“A group of two students was instructed to make a train station. They looked for the design of Dubai metro station and they started adding their own ideas to that model and they ended by creating a new design that can be practical. Moreover, the students were able to improve their 2D sketching abilities on the paper as well as the 3D modeling using Tinkercad.“
Mohamed Raouf, teacher
