It always amazes me when I learn about some of the things students across Ohio are learning. It really makes me wish I was still in Middle School! No, really! This weeks A+ Award winners are a great example of something that I wish I had the opportunity to learn about and take part in.
Mr. Ranford’s STEM Class at Springfield Middle School, in Holland is learning about 3D printing. 3D printing is a process for making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many successive thin layers of a material. The students get to use CAD software to design objects and then they print them. CAD is an acronym for computer aided drafting. The students have used the projects to make things like key chains, name tags, and custom bookmarks. Pretty cool, right?
Well it gets way cooler. Some of the students realized that they could put this technology to work making the world a better place. The students started doing research on some of the things they could make using the school’s 10 printers, and they realized that they could make prosthetic hands for children for about $20!
To do this, the students had to use the engineering and design process to develop prototype hands. A prototype is a model of something that can be used to test if something works. The hands that the students are making use a heavy duty fishing line to make the fingers work. Dionte’ told us that “I liked learning more about how my hands work - I hadn't really thought about tendons and what they do - I am learning a lot!" Each hand takes about 43 hours to print. So far this year, they’ve made an astonishing 16 hands, and they’re working on 16 more.
Mr. Ranford told us that the students are learning a lot about trial and error and he encourages them to fail forward, which means to learn from their mistakes in a way that helps their project move toward the goal.
The mechanical hands aren’t yet ready for people. They still need to go through more testing from an organization called Enabling the Future to make sure they can stand up to the rigors of use. We think KaLaysia said it best when she said "I feel good knowing that I'm doing things that will help people!"
This week’s A+ Award goes to the STEM students at Springfield Middle School for using 3D printing technology to help others.
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