MakerSpace Projects - 3D printing and Laser Cutting

Our school is lucky enough to have three 3D printers and one Laser Cutter.

I also appreciate how these resources are available to EVERYONE in the school.  There is no special permission needed to use it at all and the woman who runs the whole thing is always willing to help and is SO patient (with teachers AND students).  We have great resources.

But, I have noticed it is the same few students who use these pieces of equipment and often they use them to create something that they found on Thingiverse - most students aren't creating their own plans from scratch.

To me this is inequity, there are students who feel like they "belong" in the space and students who don't.  After the AP test, my goals were 1) to ensure all students could use the equipment, 2) to have students create (not copy) with the equipment.

From there I went to Twitter in search of ideas.

Laser Cutter
The blog A Recursive Process was instrumental as he talked  about using Desmos to create art to cut out on the laser cutter.  This was perfect since it allowed students to take something cool they made in Desmos and bring it to the real world.  Additionally, students could engrave their design on their TI calculator if they wanted too also.

Here is what some students did:

It wasn't all smooth sailing.  I needed to create very careful directions for students which I created collaboratively with our tech person (you can find them here).  The program sometimes had trouble seeing the piece as one connected line which caused some people's pieces of art to fall apart in their hands.  My hope is that students will be able to use this for future Desmos creations as well.

3D printing
For 3D printing, fellow CS teacher Eileen King also suggested doing a 3D printing project around having students design their own monopoly piece.  This was a GREAT idea since the laser printers take a while so doing something small was really the only way to ensure that all students would get to use them.

I decided to use BlocksCAD who also recommended that students try some design challenges before diving in to make their own monopoly piece.  I had students show me that they could create a torus cage, a block of cheese, and a ring of cubes just to get familiar with working in 3D space.  I stamped each of these off as they created them and showed them to me.

To be honest, while most students designed a monopoly piece, not everyone got to print.  And some students decided they wanted to create something else.  I also suggested that students who were already familiar with the 3D printers do something around volume of solids and curves since the 3D printers can be a powerful tool to help visualize that method in Calc. 

What I would do differently:

• Rent out a space in the library for my class to be so I could float more easily between the MakerSpace and the classroom.  I am so thankful for students I can trust that I could leave my students in either place without worrying about unacceptable behavior.  BUT being closer would make it easier to support all students during class.  There was a few times where a student in the classroom would come to me with a text message from a student in the MakerSpace that said they needed help. 
• Make a schedule.  Timing was still an issue to get all students through the equipment.  Next time I would make a schedule with different students signed up each day to ensure we were on track. 
• Fix timing.  Even with a schedule, it takes too long for every student to 3D print.  Especially when they are prone to breaking or other students starting projects on them who are not in my class.  Also, when students come up with a really cool new idea, it usually takes longer than 30 minutes to print.  At most I could get 6 students though the 3D printers in an hour - and that is even optimistic.  I let students watch Hidden Figures while other students were printing this year, but I don't love that solution.  Next year I will need to think of a different project that students could do while others are printing.

Celebrating Successes:

• I saw all students using the equipment.  I saw more girls in that room than I had ever seen before which was a huge win in my book.
• Students were creating things. They would always proudly show me the thing they just made which means that the work was meaningful to them.