Why have a 3D printer in a school? Are you nuts?

So, why would you want to have a 3D printer in a classroom anyway?  I mean, they are difficult to use, expensive to buy and operate and there is really no practical use for one other than printing IPhone cases and flash drive holders, right?

Well, having been a Biology teacher in the past I can tell you first hand that the possibilities that a printer presents in the Science classroom are limited only by your imagination.  From simulated frog dissections (above) to representing the periodic table in 3 dimensions according to densities of elements (below).

A printer also allows you to make some of the everyday things that you use in a lab or classroom such as test tube racks...

...a roller clamp for flexible tubing...

...a cover slip holder...

...or even a Sabertooth skull...

Now that we can see a couple of practical uses for a printer, what about cost, repairs and maintenance and all of the other stuff that eventually comes up?  Well, as for initial purchase costs, prices are coming down dramatically with each passing month. 3D printers are now at an affordable price for the casual homeowner to  have in their offices and shops.  Machines are getting better and cheaper at an astounding rate.  Do you remember when a cell phone was the size of a carry on bag and cost a small fortune?  Now look where we are.  Machines and the materials that we feed them are getting better and more reasonably priced.  Competition in the market is driving all of this and we can only expect more in the very near future.

I know there are those that are intimidated by the whole concept of 3D printing but do not fear!  There are some very user friendly machines out there (Afinia comes to mind) and the support through manufacturers, blogs and forums are amazing.  Not to mention other educators who already have experience with these things. 

Remember, this is happening very quickly so if you don't start to get your feet wet soon you'll really let your students down.  They should be, at the very least, exposed to this technology at the high school level, even the middle schools.  I know for a fact that there are several Universities and Community Colleges that are planning to offer Certifications in the field of 3D design and printing.

And as always, if there are questions please do not hesitate to drop me an email.  I will do my best to answer whatever questions you may have.  Happy printing!

Goals for 2015/2016 and beyond

As you can see from the above images, these are two prints that, due to their nature, required a lot of support material.  Not only is this support material difficult to remove but it is also a bit of a waste of material.  We are going to focus some of our efforts next year on printing with two heads on the Hyrel System 30, using one of the heads to print only the support material out of a dissolvable material.

We also want to push into printing with a wider variety of materials such as Moldlay, Sugru, Laywood and Laybrick, Ninja-flex and whatever else we can get our hands on.  For the first time in an Oregon High School, our students 3D printed a part for a metal working machine, then the students in our Metals 3 class sand-casted the printed part and poured a new one out of brass.  This is one of the collaborative efforts we have undertaken to try and get students cross curricular experience.  We intend to continue this sort of work and hope to expand students knowledge and abilities.