Planner 5D, a digital design tool, has created a free educational version to help schools teach architecture and design. The tool, which allows users to generate 3D home designs, is offering its free educational licenses to “encourage students to foster their creativity in a digital realm while learning design principles.” The tool is available to teachers worldwide, who can download up to 100 free educational licenses for use by students.

The initiative has been launched to facilitate the teaching of STEM subjects to school kids, including focuses on art, architecture, engineering, and interior design. The app is centered on “problem based learning”, which invites students to develop computational skills by studying and solving home design challenges using a library of 6000 objects.

“With this free educational version for schools, we not only provide students across the globe with access to the platform but also help teachers to encourage them to foster their creativity while learning basic design principles needed to make their dreams come true,” said Alexey Sheremetyev, the company’s founder.

The educational version utilizes the same app-based infrastructure of Planner 5D’s standard 2D/3D home design tool, which has been used by over 70 million amateur designers. In addition to the new educational initiative, the app has also recently unveiled a “Design Battle” feature, which challenges contestants to accomplish design-related tasks using specific predefined elements.

Planner 5D’s initiative joins other resources recently unveiled to encourage careers in STEM subjects. Earlier this month, we carried the story of workwear brand Carhartt teaming up with heavy metal band Metallica’s nonprofit All Within My Hands Foundation in an effort to attract a new generation of workers in the skilled trades. One month previous, the Norman Foster Foundation released a new series of 14 masterclasses exploring fundamental aspects of designing libraries and archives, which followed a previous unveiling of 20 videos on the subject of city planning.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, a group of leading architectural organizations collaborated on a set of guides helping students and teachers explore careers in architecture. While the “Your Guide to a Career in Architecture” is designed for high school and K-12 students interested in joining the architectural community, the “Your Guide to Helping Students Consider a Career in Architecture” is intended for school counselors and educators to advise students through the process.