Day 109- Printing a Pokeball

Math 11 – Here I’m trying to print a Pokeball that one of my Math 11 students modeled.  The first couple of tries at printing didn’t work too. I’m using Cura, and I found on Reddit that Cura allows the user to view the layers as they will print. Using this function and by modifying the support parameters, I was able to anticipate what changes I should make to get the sphere to print.  The supports aren’t needed for overhang, it’s needed to get enough material touching the buildplate so the part doesn’t slip while printing.  It worked.

103 – Printing 3D Scaled Models

Math 11 – I’m slowly chipping away at printing models that the kids designed.  This student was pretty excited to try and print his Acropolis.  It worked out pretty good!  The idea with this project was to have students use 3D design software to practice visualizing and exploring 3d shapes. As well, I added small component of calculating scale to the assignment.

Day 80 – Many Solutions

Engineering Physics – I don’t want to flog a dead horse with the 3D printing, but it is what we’ve been working with… Here is a collection of the different laser holder designs that the students made.

There are fairly large flaws in all of them, mostly because I didn’t give them all the info they needed to design a fully functioning holder.  In general they made a housing for the laser, but there is nothing in the design of the housings that makes them, in turn, good for holding!  And to be honest, I didn’t really want to go down that road. I just wanted them to have some experience with mechanical design and modeling, which worked out. If this course runs again next year, I have many ideas on how to improve this project and have it work more seamlessly with the cart launcher that preceded it. More to come!

Day 76 – Continue to Print

Engineering Physics – The class continues to fine-tune their designs while I print them out.  I’m starting to get a better idea of its capabilities in terms of resolution and what can and cannot be printed. So far the Printrbot Simples are working very well.

Day 74 – First 3D Prints

Engineering Physics – The first couple of groups starting printing their designs today. We are all learning with this process together. I wasn’t sure what kind of resolution we would get with the printers and it looks like many of the students are designing features that are less than 1mm in size. I know the resolution of the printers is better than 1mm but I don’t think it is good enough to print extrusions that are 1mm in size. It’s close though. This should lead to some good lessons on tolerances and limits of fabrication.

Day 71.5 – 3D Printers are Ready

Engineering – I came in over the holidays to finish fixing and setting up my room’s 2 Printrbot Simple 3D printers.

They say it’s important to step away from teaching while on holidays in order to not burn out. I’ve been looking forward to this though, I’m interested in the technology and wanted the time to focus on getting them going.

I haven’t printed much yet. I had to swap out a z-axis, replace and cooling fan and then calibrate the z-axis sensor. I then printed a spacer part that the spools of PLA will sit on. So far things are going ok. Perhaps I will come in again to test print a model of a Greenland paddle, as part of a project I’m designing for Math 8.

Day 57 – Working on the 3D Printer

Math 8 – I kept working in the Printrbot Simple 3D printers today. It’s been hard finding the time to get them working. I had to replace one y-axis that was bent. Once I had done this, I realized that the extruder fan on the other printer had also been broken. It is difficult to find time to work on them, with all of the other tasks I have to do.

In the meantime, I have modeled a Greenland paddle in Onshape. The model has 4 variables that the students will have to measure and scale, in order to have a scaled model of a paddle. From there, the students will print out their paddle.

Day 45 – 3D Printers Unpacked

Math – Today I unpacked the two 3D Printers that arrived. I ordered 2 refurbished “Simple” printers from Printrbot. I’m not entirely sure when I will get time to set them up though. I think the fume hood will be a great place for them, as the exhaust can easily handle any smells and the sash window can help block noise.

Unfortunately it looks like one of the printer’s extruders is at an angle. I don’t know if this causes problems or not, so I will try to get a hold of Printrbot and see what they have to say.

Pseudo Day 116 – First Day of QFocus

Science 9 – May 4

As we began a new unit on Space, I thought I would try to kick the inquiry up a notch by incorporating some tools that I read about in Make Just One Change by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana.  In this picture you see the students grouping together and discussing some new questions they have about Space.  The QFocus point that I gave them was:

The Universe and its galaxies were formed over 13.4 billion years ago

Yes, I know the Big Bang is thought to have occurred 13.7 billion years ago but the above 13.4 also includes formation of galaxies.

I also had the help of a co-worker who used his 3D printer to make a capacitor holder that I designed.  The idea is to use this to hold capacitors that I have soldered back-to-back. I may make a whole classroom set to use in the electricity unit.