Unwrapping our 3D Printers

We got our three 3D Printers delivered at the start of February and we started to put them through their paces.

[source]

We ended up getting some FlashForge inventor2 machines and a FlashForge Guider 2 for ABS printing. Realistically if I had an open chequebook I would have gotten three Ultimaker units, but we all have budgets in our School Libraries - right?

Firstly, a print off of Benchy the tug boat. A diagnostic print designed to test the thresholds of your printer.

One of our science teachers wanted an Apollo Astronaut printed for his Year 10 STEM class.

[source]

One of our tech guys wanted a Baby Yoda printed off.

[source]

We also experimented a bit with Pi Cookie Cutters. I love the idea of kids designing their own cookie cutters and then using them as part of a food tech project.

[source]

I am putting links to 3D Printing resources up on my Library Makerspace Libguides page.

Three simple ways to use the Makerspace 3D Printers in your Art Curriculum

Three ways in which you can use your School Library Makerspace 3D Printer to enhance the Art curriculum.

1. Flourishes for Textiles 

[source]

As part of our textiles curriculum, students are shown how to create and print custom buttons on our 3D Printers. If they don't like buttons, they can custom print a tag to be sewn onto their garment or in this case (image) iPad pouch.

This is a quick and easy task that is designed to get them thinking about the application of 3D Printing in the textile realm.

2. Create jewellery

[source]

As part of a Year 10 graphic design unit, students designed their own jewellery and then we scanned in the diagrams, converted them to 3D shapes using Selva3D and printed them off. In reality, it is probably more a laser cutting exercise than 3D Printer, but we didn't have a laser cutter.

3. Create Makers Mark stamps for ceramics

[source]

This is such an incredibly simple concept. Students who do ceramics normally sketch their name on the base of the object that they have made. A Makers Mark stamp is another extension of that and an opportunity to talk about branding.

If you want to take this concept pone step further, creating a metal "makers mark" can be done via shapeways and here is an example of one. You could create it as a keyring and get it printed in metal.

Library at the Dock Makerspace

A few weeks back we headed off to a professional learning session at the Library at the Dock run by Learning Team Australia.

The workshop focused on how the School Library or learning commons can build influence and become an agent of change within the school community.

It featured presentations and workshops that identified ways teacher librarians can establish influential relationships within their school. James Henri spoke a lot about understanding your circles of influence and making sure that you are building and maintaining them. Influence and Social Capital are two closely aligned terms, check out Joyce Valenza's talk.

The Library @ the Dock is all new and shiny and as you would expect they have a 3D Printing section where they have a number of 3D printers that are available for the public to use. Consumables are charged per gram of the finished product and of course there are samples sitting around including a Tardis!

I liked the way that they had the filament rolls above the unit on a stand made by the 3D printer of course!

The Library at the dock have plenty of Makerspace workshops that you can attend and they are all FREE!