Middle School Students Become Ancient Roman Architects Using 3D Printers

St. Margaret’s Middle School Latin students took on a new role recently—as architects in the ancient Roman empire.

As part of a unit on Roman bath houses in Emma Boyle’s Grade 7 Latin 1A class, students were able to learn about the ancient facilities in a hands-on way by creating their own bath house using 3D printers in the design and fabrication lab—a merging of Latin and STEM.

The students then presented their structures to the class, pointing out different areas of their creation using both Latin and English terminology.

“To be able to look at it and point out different areas of the bath house, it gave them ownership and made it more real for them,” Ms. Boyle said. “Plus, it was a lot of fun.”

The students spent a week in the design and fabrication lab, working with lab director Ashley Ricart on conceptualizing and printing their designs. The projects required certain rooms that were common in ancient Roman bath houses, like the palaestra (exercise room), apodyterium (changing room) and caldarium (hot room), but students were also given the opportunity to add creative elements to their facility so long as it was consistent with 1^st-century technology.

In the past, Ms. Boyle had students draw blueprints on paper. That evolved last year to allowing students to use different architecture apps on their tablets to create designs. This year, she met with Ms. Ricart and decided to take advantage of St. Margaret’s technology resources and incorporate 3D printing into the unit.

“I think it was a great success,” Ms. Boyle said. “There was a higher retention of students remembering terminology and features of ancient Roman bath houses. And they were able to gain experience with new technologies here and create something that they could take home.”