Imagine being faced with a problem and having the ability to print a 3D solution. This fantasy has become a reality at Notre Dame High School where students and staff are experimenting with a new 3D printer.
The local school's communications technology program was the lucky recipient of the $2,300 printer in early December thanks to a generous donation from Imperial Oil.
Although they have only had less than a semester to familiarize themselves with the new technology, teacher Andrew Nickless says it has completely changed his course.
“There is a unit about typography and that is usually a unit that the kids dread because it isn't something kids like to learn,” said Nickless. “My first assignment was to make some street art and print it off. Now it is an assignment they want to do. They are engaged.”
The students design the art on a computer program such as Photoshop, AutoCAD and Sketchup. They then send the design to the printer and can print their item. So far the teachers have been experimenting by printing a variety of objects from shark combs, to a small figurine of the Incredible Hulk.
“I think the key for this is that it really opens up inquiry based learning for the kids. If they can think it, then they can make it,” said Peter Godin, who also teaches the Communications Technology course at the school.
“I am not really teaching the kids, I am providing the tools and a problem and letting them go through the process of solving it,” said Nickless. “We could spend an entire semester just learning about the tool, but that is not going to help them. I just act as more of a coach to help the kids through the problem.”
One of the projects Nickless has posed for his students involves helping another student who is wheelchair bound and has several physical impairments.
“Their big assignment for the unit is to shadow the student and create something that will improve his life here at Notre Dame High or to assist the aids with him in some way.”
According to Nickless the project is a way to get the students thinking about ways to solve a “real world problem.”
“One of the ways we are going to engage the students in this course is by presenting them with a problem and then asking them to solve the problem using different design elements. How they accomplish that is entirely up to them,” said Nickless.
The printer uses a special type of plastic, which can be purchased relatively cheaply at $50 per kilogram. It comes in a variety of different colours and is just as strong as industrial plastic.
The printing time for an item varies depending on the specifications chosen. The size of the item, resolution and thickness all has a factor in print times. For example a low resolution Hulk figurine took roughly 17 hours to print, but a smaller street art project was printed in about 30 minutes.
With the printer being so new to the program the teachers are still working out all of the ways it can be incorporated into courses throughout the high school. So far several other classes have gotten involved and used it to aid in other course projects.
“We are trying to link it to other disciplines,” said Godin. “I have kids in chemistry that are going to print our organic molecules. We have kids in our shop class who are going to design template homes. They can print out the template home, go into the shop and build an even larger scale.”
Godin added, “These kids are thinking outside the box now. Instead of giving them a procedure to follow we are handing them a real world problem. That is where the benefit of this comes in.”
