Lindsey and Tariq just plain love STEM courses at our 6th-8th grade Middle School. They are now 8th graders and have taken STEM courses almost every semester since entering our school. I have seen an enormous amount of growth in not only their engineering abilities, but also their leadership.
This project developed out of necessity. We now have close to 300 students taking STEM courses at our middle school this year. Our students love working with our CAD software to design solutions to all sorts of problems. The real magic happens when those designs materialize one layer at a time from the extruder of a 3D printer. Having something in their hands that they have created, being able to show their prototype to friends and family, testing it and improving it - this is where the entrepreneurial mindset is developed.
Students make the jump from being frustrated by problems to actively pursuing solutions to their problems. Their prints can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours (or much longer). If you do the math there is really no way for me to keep up with all of those student prints having just one working 3D printer in the classroom. This was a frustrating dynamic, Lindsey and Tariq experienced this backlog first hand last year and wanted to do something about it.
In this project, students will take on leadership roles as they assume responsibility for two 3D printers in our tech lab. Students will learn how to operate and maintain the 3D printers from their instructor so that they can help keep up with printing student work from our STEM classes.
Student leaders will act as liaisons to teachers in our school building to solicit possible project ideas. They will also be in charge of facilitation of delegating out projects to other students. As the student leaders gain experience throughout the year, they will then train younger students to do their job after they have left for high school. In addition to all of these social-emotional skills, they will also gain valuable academic skills. Academic skills are application based including, programming, design thinking, CAD and mathematical skills such as geometric sense, measurement, scaling and algebraic reasoning.
In Their Own Words
The main goals for this project is to let us learn the design process, solve a problem using technology like CAD tools and then make it into something we can hold using the 3D printers. This will give the us an opportunity to show our talent and create some new and amazing things! Kids in our classes are really excited about CAD and especially using the 3D printer, but it is disappointing when you have to wait a long time for your print. I want to help with this!
When I joined our STEM elective class in 6th grade, I fell in love with technology. I wanted to learn everything about new technologies such as Robotics, CAD software, and 3D printers. I designed a light saber hilt and printed it. It felt amazing! Now, I want to get as many kids as I can to have that same feeling by learning how to use the printer, taking orders and helping kids get their files 3D printed. After I learn everything, I will teach younger kids to do what I am doing.
This project will help the school community because it will increase the number of 3D prints we can make. Last year, I had to wait a really long time because there were too many people who also wanted to print something. We can also do the design process better because we're not waiting to test our prototype. I am excited about learning how to use the printer in my class and then teaching others to use it. Our teacher was always printing, but just couldn't keep up, we're here to help!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Mr. Ewert and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.