Makerbot Lecture 3D Printing with David Wells

One of the nice things about all this crazy travel this summer is I have gotten to do and see some things that are just not available in Richmond, VA. Last night I got to go to the Makerbot store in NYC to hear a talk about 3-D Printing and Maker spaces.

3-D Printing Filament

The speaker was David Wells from the New York Hall of Science. He is the Manager of Creative Making & Learning - I know, best job title ever.

Last year my computer clubs project was 3-D printing. They fund-raised and bought a PrintrBot tight at the end of the year. I am so excited to see where this takes us next year.

The presentation was a great overview of 3-D printing, some of the recent changes and how to incorporate it into maker spaces. One of the general themes was that engagement with museums tapers off as kids hit their teen years, and these maker spaces are a great way to bring them back in.

Several of the folks working at the Makerspace for the summer were there to show off what they were working on. They are part of Maker Corps Education program. They are officially called explainers, which I might borrow for when we do recruitment in the lab.

Oh, and if you are in the neighborhood NYSCI is the host of the Maker Faire NY this fall on Sept 21 - 22. If you havent been to one you must go. Really - its your homework. Find a Maker Faire near you and get to it. I got to do the one at the Henry Ford Museum last summer in Detroit and it was amazing.

Resources:

• Interview with David Wells - best summary of the Maker movement Ive seen
• New York Hall of Science
• MakerSpace @ NYSCI
• Maker Corps 
• TinkerCad - Mind to Design in Minutes - This site lets you create the files that the 3-D printer uses
• Explainer TV from NYSCI - has some fun DIY projects and science explinations
• 
  

And if you need a story to help inspire you to the power of 3-D printing: 3-D Printer Brings Dexterity To Children With No Fingers.

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Printing in 3D

Our new 3-D Printer:

Bits and Pieces

The computer club kids have been working all year to raise the money for our new 3-D Printer. They bought it from Printrbot. They offer a $150 teacher discount, which helps.

Hopefully it starts looking like this by Friday:

I have been working over the past year to build the lab into a hacker space. We have programmable sewing machines, screen printer, button maker and now the printer. It has created a lot of excitement around the computer science program here and brings a lot of kids into the lab.

Is this computer science? Maybe. Computer Science folks never question having robots in the lab, and frankly the amount of "coding" that goes into the embroidery sewing machine or the other stuff is about the same as many simple robots like the Finch (with Snap).

For me it builds a culture of creating and crafting, with coding at the core, and that is enough.

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