Paint 3D (Math and Science teachers...This one is for you!)

Do you remember when you were in kindergarten and used to paint? There were many times I painted a picture that I wished would come alive. Puppies, rainbows, people...it reminds me of an old cartoon, Chalk Zone. Everything the little boy drew would come alive and interact with him. In some ways, this ability is not so far-fetched anymore. Microsoft Paint 3D allows you to create your own digital three-dimensional images.

By now, even if you are not a math or science teacher, I hope you are hooked and want to see more. You can follow the steps below to begin creating shapes and images on your own. (Even though it looks like there are lots of steps, they are really easy to follow. Don't let the length of this post scare you away!)

In order to begin, you first must locate the Microsoft Paint software on your computer. This software is not set up as an icon on your toolbar, so you will need to search for it. Click in the search box in the bottom left corner of your screen and type in Paint. You will see the Paint application under the BEST MATCH section. Click on Paint to open the program. (You may want to right-click on this icon now at the bottom of the screen, in the toolbar, and pin it to the taskbar.

Once you open Paint, it looks like a basic drawing program. Look on the ribbon across the top screen and locate the EDIT WITH PAINT 3D icon. Click on this to open the enhanced version of Paint.

Once you have opened Paint 3D, you will see the Welcome screen. Click NEW.

Next, click on 3D Shapes at the top of the screen.

On the right side of the screen, it allows you to select the shape you would like to draw. I chose to make a pyramid. All I did was click and draw on the blank canvas until I had the size of shape I wanted. Now I can click on the icons on the side of the image to turn the image and see all sides.

Now, what is an educational application for this drawing? Let’s start with math. Whenever I turn or rotate the shape, I see the degree of movement. Students could also use the ruler feature found in the Windows Ink Workspace to measure the sides for area or perimeter. I am sure you can imagine how this could be expanded upon. What about building castles out of these shapes and finding the surface area of the building? You could create some amazing tesselations using these shapes as well.

This program gets even better for science. Once again, look at the top of the screen at the menu options. This time, click on 3D Library.

Once the 3D library opens, type SCIENCE in the search bar. This is where it gets really exciting!

I selected the volcano image. Once the image is loaded onto my blank canvas, I can turn and spin the image so I can see it from all angles. This feature gives students a virtual view of images, such as skeletons, and even allows them to label the different parts.

Note: When searching for images in the 3D library, be sure to look in both MODELS and BOARDS within the search to see a larger number of image options.

If you have a few minutes this weekend, you may want to experiment with Paint 3D. I will share some additional ideas for using this software in the near future.