100 years ago Dr Maria Montessori used cheap and accessible materials to develop keys to the universe. Today, glass beads are no longer cheap and accessible so I was looking for ways to adapt her design for the modern context. My husband acquired a 3D printer for his STEM classroom and so I figured I could utilise that. Why Golden Beads?The golden beads are a powerful way to teach the decimal system in a really tangible way. You can clearly show children what 1, 10, 100 and 1000 looks and feels