Empowering Classrooms with 3D Printing: The Jagah3D STEM Kit Story

A Turning Point with ELEGOO With Her

That vision began to take shape when Janet joined the ELEGOO With Her program, a global initiative designed to provide opportunities for women to explore and create with 3D printing.

At the start, she was just like many newcomers: her very first Benchy boat felt like an impossible challenge. But step by step, through mentorship, practice, and plenty of trial and error, she learned how to calibrate printers, fine-tune slicing, and design models that were both durable and easy to print.

It was in this environment of support and collaboration that Janet transformed from a beginner to a creator, using 3D printing not just to make prototypes, but to engineer a complete classroom solution: the Jagah3D STEM Kit.

Building the Jagah3D STEM Kit

The kit comes in three themed sets, each representing a different source of renewable energy:

● Solar Ice Cream Store – through 3D-printed mounts and casings, students can clearly see how solar panels, batteries, and controllers connect to form a complete system. Beyond assembly, the printed parts were optimized for safety and durability, making the kit reusable across many classroom sessions.

● Wind Turbine – using 3D-printing modular turbine blades, Janet's students could swap out designs and directly compare their performance, measured with a multimeter. Janet went through multiple design iterations, refining the blade shapes so each version became an experiment in both energy output and engineering design.

● Hydro Turbine – the turbine wheel and housing were created with 3D printing, allowing students to see exactly how flowing water spins a rotor to generate electricity. Janet optimized the parts by adjusting their print orientation and reducing supports, which not only cut print time by about 30% but also made the models sturdy enough for repeated classroom use.

To make the kits truly classroom-ready, Janet also created student guides and teacher/parent handbooks, making it easy for anyone to run the experiments. Along the way, she iterated tirelessly on the engineering: raising blade infill to improve strength, reorienting parts to reduce support material, and streamlining print times. These weren’t just technical adjustments, they translated into blades that hold up during lessons, models that can be printed faster, and ultimately more time for students to focus on learning rather than equipment failures.

More Than Just a Kit

What makes the Jagah3D STEM Kit powerful isn’t just the hardware, it’s the learning opportunities enabled by 3D printing. Students don’t only see energy conversion; they also discover how design choices in 3D printing affect function and performance. By experimenting with different printed blade shapes or testing the durability of various print settings, they practice forming hypotheses, running experiments, and recording real data.

For teachers, the kits provide a reliable, reusable resource. Instead of relying on one-time demonstrations, they now have tools they can repeatedly print, repair, and adapt for different classes, making it easier to teach complex topics like renewable energy systems.

Looking Ahead

Janet’s journey doesn’t stop here. With her new venture, Jagah3D, she plans to bring these kits into more schools across Nigeria, starting with 10 pilot schools in 2025 and aiming for 100 schools by the end of the year. In the future, thousands of students will not only see renewable energy at work but also experience the power of 3D printing as a tool for problem-solving and innovation. For many, it may be their first chance to picture themselves as future engineers.

Next Steps

Janet often reflects on how the ELEGOO With Her program provided her with the space, tools, and encouragement to turn her early experiments into a practical solution. What began with learning to calibrate a printer has grown into a project with the potential to reshape classroom learning.

Her story shows what can happen when creativity, technology, and purpose come together. At ELEGOO, we're thrilled to have been part of her journey, and can't wait to see how far Jagah3D will go.