Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
9
A factory in the
classroom
A few years ago, I was invited to talk about 3D printing at my son's second-
grade class. Used to teaching dedicated college-level engineering stu-
dents, I promptly agreed. “Sounds great,” I said to my then-graduate student
Evan Malone (now the owner of a 3D printing and manufacturing “gym” in
Philadelphia). “How hard could this be?”
In the weeks leading up to the big day, I tested out potential 3D printing
presentation ideas on my son at home. Idea after idea was irmly nixed. Would
the kids like a presentation on 3D printing? No. How about some movies of
printed toys? Or a class on using design software? All negative.
As they day drew nearer and no good ideas emerged, Evan and I felt an
unexpected stirrings of stage fright. Finally, inspiration struck: how about we
3D print in playdough? Kids understand playdough, right?
With a viable game plan in mind, we designed a toy space shuttle whose
body would be printed in red playdough, and the wings and tail in blue. The
day of the demo inally came. We arrived at the classroom with Fab@home, a
small open source 3D printer model we had developed in our research labo-
ratory. Fab@home is about the size of a microwave oven, with clear plastic
walls so people can watch the printing process in action. For this particular
demo, Evan had set up the 3D printer with an extra-large print nozzle so the
toy space shuttle would come out faster, in about three minutes or so—within
the attention span of the young kids.
Like a minor royal holding state, Fab@home was placed onto a tall platform
in the second-grade classroom. Its print cartridges loaded with red and blue
playdough. The printer sat grandly, surrounded by a cluster of second graders
peering eagerly into its Plexiglas case. After a few introductory words to the
class, Evan hit the “print” button. Fab@home's 3D print head began to zip
back and forth, slowly squeezing out red and blue playdough in the shape of
a tiny space shuttle as directed by the computer design ile.
