STEAM Projects Inspired by 
Real Professions

From bike handlebar grips customized to the student’s own hands, to turning anything into Lego, to recreating Mesopotamian stamp seals, Matter and Form helps you solve STEAM. Our standards-aligned, step-by-step projects provide guided access to the real 3D tools used every day in dozens of modern professions.

Matter and Form
Matter and Form

Project Examples

Jack-o-Lantern

Grades 6-8

Scan a gourd and turn it into a 3D printed lantern for Halloween! Learn about biology and energy transfer and get creative by making your own holiday decorations.

Phone Holder

Grades 6-12

Create a customized phone holder from a favourite object or toy. Consideration must be given to performance factors like phone dimensions and speaker placement. Designing how to modify the object to handle the weight and desired view angle of the phone presents an engaging engineering challenge.

Coin Bank

Grades 6-12

Select an object and turn it into a coin bank. Explore the relationship between potential and kinetic energy, and develop and apply technical skills to create a working solution.

Key Chain

Grades 6-8

Students will explore the properties of metals and nonmetals, along with critical design elements in order to craft a usable keychain. This lesson infuses science content knowledge, engineering skills, and technology instruction in order to achieve progress towards national standards.

Surprise Egg Box

Grades 6-8

Examine popular toys from the past decade and use the context to make an egg-shaped gift box, customized to the object it will contain. 

Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals

Grades 6-12

Learn about ancient world civilizations through exploring and creating stamp cylinder seals.

Repairing Damaged Toys

Grades 6-12

Explore real-world applications of 3D printed parts. Brainstorm personal, local, and regional repair needs for 3D printed solutions, and apply these to design a part to repair a damaged toy.

Russian Nesting Doll

Grades 6-12

Learn about Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian nesting dolls. Explore their traditional construction process and then create nested dolls using 3D scanning, modelling and printing.

Custom Lego™ Bricks

Grades 6-12

Explore the inherent structural engineering behind Lego, then convert a favorite toy or object into custom a Lego brick by scanning it and printing a modified duplicate.