Last year, thanks to a generous parent donation, the school was able to purchase a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer to be housed in the old Math Office. This machine allows us to print physical recreations of 3D models designed and drawn using software tools like Tinkercad or Sketchup.
Our initial aim was to use this new tool in Science, Art and Computer Science classes, but over the year we also saw interest from the English and Modern Languages departments. This year we hope to revisit and improve on some of these projects, as well as look at new ideas for using the printer (such as creating musical instruments or hunting calls). A couple of these projects are starting next week and the results will be posted here on the tech blog.
Below you can view a selection of photographs and screenshots of some of the different student projects completed last year:
And here are a couple of time-lapse videos of the printer in action, to give you an idea of how the software models are transformed into physical objects: