We all hear a lot about 3D printers nowadays. The K-12 grade students at Van Meter come to the library often wanting to learn, create, and collaborate using 3D printers. Just think what they can create if they have easy access to a 3D printer that is free to use when they want. Please help us.
Van Meter Community School is 15 miles west of Des Moines.
We are a small, rural town with amazing things taking place within the school and community. We have 600 students in grades K-12. All of our school district, K-12, are in one building, which adds so much to the uniqueness and richness of our school community.
Our students are creative, driven, and very passionate about the access, tools, and technology that we have. They take pride and ownership within our spaces inside and outside of our school. They also take pride in being a Van Meter Bulldog.
When given opportunities to try new things and make a difference, our students will rise to the challenge. They like these situations and strive to include themselves in as many learning opportunities as possible.
Having a Makerbot 3D printer would motivate and inspire all of our students within the fields of Robotics and Science. I would love to see what they created using this amazing device.
My Project
By putting a 3D printer into the hands of our students and into the library, we would be connecting our students to resources, opportunities, and experiences they would not have otherwise.
We would be giving them a great platform in learning how to make things and how things work. They would be able to connect to fields of science, such as robotics, in ways that would inspire and captivate them into creating something awesome. And these passions could even lead to future jobs and hobbies for our young people.
In addition to using the Makerbot 3D printer within the curriculum of the classrooms and library, we also have an amazing group called "The Technical Difficulties." This group would be able to really dive into projects using the printer outside of the school day. They could become "experts" and go out to teach and support our school community by holding workshops, creating webcasts, and answering tweets and emails.
This project would inspire our students to embrace their creativity and love for learning how things work.
The addition to a Makerbot 3D printer would bring an important sense of community through collaboration and connecting to one another and to other classrooms, students, experts, and others around the world using social media such as Twitter, Skype, and Google Hangout.
By putting a tool like this into our young peoples hands,we are telling them that we believe they can create anything.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Miller and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.