Today, BPC Maker Club embarked on a different kind of presentation. Different than the Maker Faire or Bay Area Science Festival, where we met with people of all ages, and different than the 3DPW Expo, where we were networking with companies, CUE Cool Tools 2015 was a workshop for teachers.
We highlighted a few of our maker projects in school. You can see our presentation here:
We highlighted a few of our maker projects in school. You can see our presentation here:
Then allowed for lots of small-group, hands-on time for teachers to learn more about MaKey MaKeys, Scratch, Lilypad sewable electronics and 3D printing.
(Students, add your reflections here)
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| "I agree!" - Ms. Mytko |
Here is a brief overview of our experience at 3DPW - more to be added soon, but homework and science fair is taking up most of our time right now!
This past weekend, the BPC Maker Club was excited to be part of 3D Printer World Expo in Burbank, CA. 3DPW is currently the only 3D printing conference in the country (world?) that allows kids under the age of 18.
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| BPC Maker Club at our 3DPW booth! |
We left after lunch on Thursday and flew down to Burbank just in time for the opening reception. The 8th grade boys did enjoy the fancy, open buffet!
Friday morning, we were in the elevator, heading down to the Expo floor, when we ran into John Westrum, from Afinia**. He was the vendor that was speaking at the seminar "Enhancing Education Curriculum Through 3D Printing." John is somewhat familiar with our work, having run into Ms. Mytko at a number of previous conferences, and was very excited to see up there. Then he very generously offered to shorten his presentation and give us half his time slot to speak at the seminar. We were happy to oblige.
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| Jane during the Q & A at "Enhancing Education Curriculum Through 3D Printing" |
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| Ms. Mytko describes our 8th grade 3D printing project |
That afternoon, we also met a number of folks from 3DSystems / Gentle Giants Studio, located nearby in Burbank. They called the studio and arranged a tour for us!
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| Action figures at Gentle Giants Studio |
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| BPC kids hanging out with Jabba the Hutt at Gentle Giant Studio |
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| The EPIC scanning studio - sweet! |
(We were not allowed to take photos in the 3D printing room, but it was incredible.)
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| Chillin in the conference room at Gentle Giant Studio |
We also met a teacher and STEAM coordinator, Markos, that offered to give us a tour of his makerspace. He heard us speak at the seminar and said we are "where he was two years ago." From the looks of his awesome space, we will take that as a compliment!
Some of us went to seminars occasionally, but mostly we hung out at our booth and talked... and talked. And networked with big companies. We will write more about our Expo floor adventures soon!
BPC maker club is at the 3D Printing World Expo! We have a booth in the same room as some of premier members of the 3D printing world, which is pretty cool.
When we got around to planning the logistics of our trip, we learned that most organizations ship their 3D printers ahead of time. Oops. We were going to have to carry ours on Southwest Airlines. We read over the official list of TSA prohibited items, and we didn't see anything remotely 3D-printer related on the list. We brought two of our printers - our Cube 2 and our Printrbot Simple, since they both seem small enough to pass as carry-on luggage!
When we got around to planning the logistics of our trip, we learned that most organizations ship their 3D printers ahead of time. Oops. We were going to have to carry ours on Southwest Airlines. We read over the official list of TSA prohibited items, and we didn't see anything remotely 3D-printer related on the list. We brought two of our printers - our Cube 2 and our Printrbot Simple, since they both seem small enough to pass as carry-on luggage!
To travel on the airplane, and after trying many orientations in a suitcase, we had to remove the build plate from the Printrbot simple and carry it separately. To someone unfamiliar with 3D printers, it looked like a jumble of metal parts and wires. The Cube stayed relatively intact and looked, as one student described "pretty much like a children's toy."
We had to get through the TSA with the 3D printers they were surprisingly nice, which surprised us because Reddit said they were horrible. We just took them out from our bags and sent them through the x-ray thing. I think if you put them in checked baggage it could be very different. The TSA guy even joked "of course I had to get a 3D printer today!" Another TSA guy told us that the weirdest thing he say someone try to bring through security was an automatic transmission.
We arrived at the convention center with the printer in multiple parts, and in under 15 minutes, had the build plate re-installed and a print running!
- Jane (8th grade) & Sam (8th grade)
We had to get through the TSA with the 3D printers they were surprisingly nice, which surprised us because Reddit said they were horrible. We just took them out from our bags and sent them through the x-ray thing. I think if you put them in checked baggage it could be very different. The TSA guy even joked "of course I had to get a 3D printer today!" Another TSA guy told us that the weirdest thing he say someone try to bring through security was an automatic transmission.
We arrived at the convention center with the printer in multiple parts, and in under 15 minutes, had the build plate re-installed and a print running!
- Jane (8th grade) & Sam (8th grade)
This is a post in progress, but here is a blurb from a student...
The BPC Maker Club hosted our second booth at the annual Bay Area Science Festival Discovery Days at AT&T Park. Over 30,000 people attended this free festival, where AT&T park is “converted into a giant interactive science museum.” We presented our 7th (tomography) and 8th grade (crystallography) work we’ve done at the Advanced Light Source and the 3D printing and scanning work of the Maker Club. The Maker Club 3D scanned visitors to our booth, explained the process of 3D printing and computer assisted design (CAD), demonstrated our new Matter and Form scanner, and showed visitors how to use the 3Doodler, a 3D printing pen. This event was different from our usual maker events because, for many visitors to our booth, it was their first exposure to 3D printing and 3D scanning. It is pretty incredible that you can use this small scanner (Structure Sensor) that snaps onto an iPad to scan someone in just a few minutes and in about 30 minutes you can produce a plastic replica of them!
This post is in progress, but here is a blurb from one of the kids...
On October 19th, the BPC Maker Club went to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire to explain what we tinker with in Maker Club in addition to how we learn in science. At our tables we introduced people our 3D printers, 3D scanned our visitors, and helped people make their own 3D drawings using our 3Doodler. We were in an out-of-the-way place, so at first traffic was slow, but after word started to spread, our room was packed! Younger children especially enjoyed using the 3Doodler as they were able to draw their own 3D printed design. When they learned that they could lift the pen off the page and draw on the air, their faces would light up with excitement. We then explained to interested people how we were able to 3D print data, enlarged over two hundred times its actual size, to create models that we can use during science class in order to better understand visually how the science worked. These different parts of our booth reflected the Maker Faire's slogan, "The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth," by both helping people have a great time as well as learn about an ever-expanding and fascinating new field. (Daniel, 8th grade)
More pictures from the event:
On October 19th, the BPC Maker Club went to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire to explain what we tinker with in Maker Club in addition to how we learn in science. At our tables we introduced people our 3D printers, 3D scanned our visitors, and helped people make their own 3D drawings using our 3Doodler. We were in an out-of-the-way place, so at first traffic was slow, but after word started to spread, our room was packed! Younger children especially enjoyed using the 3Doodler as they were able to draw their own 3D printed design. When they learned that they could lift the pen off the page and draw on the air, their faces would light up with excitement. We then explained to interested people how we were able to 3D print data, enlarged over two hundred times its actual size, to create models that we can use during science class in order to better understand visually how the science worked. These different parts of our booth reflected the Maker Faire's slogan, "The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth," by both helping people have a great time as well as learn about an ever-expanding and fascinating new field. (Daniel, 8th grade)
This 7 second clip represents about 2.5 hours of our day at the Faire. Created using Framelapse on an LG G3 taped to the wall.
More pictures from the event:
This weekend, I got myself an expo pass to the 3D Printer World Expo in Seattle, WA.
Now I've got our eye on this SLA machine, Droplit, an entirely open source resin-based stereolithography (SLA) printer soon to be offered by SeeMeCNC! It will come as a kit, although all the pieces (save for that one metal cylinder shape) are open source! The UV source comes from a DLP projector from which you will need to remove the UV filter. To cure the resin? A UV nail lamp from Walmart! Now, THAT's our kind of budget. You can read more about the Droplit on this 3Dprint.com post.
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the Made in Space project. It's pretty incredible - they plan to send their first printers into microgravity on September 21!
Eventually, they hope to use moon dirt as their "filament" to build what they will need.
Now I've got our eye on this SLA machine, Droplit, an entirely open source resin-based stereolithography (SLA) printer soon to be offered by SeeMeCNC! It will come as a kit, although all the pieces (save for that one metal cylinder shape) are open source! The UV source comes from a DLP projector from which you will need to remove the UV filter. To cure the resin? A UV nail lamp from Walmart! Now, THAT's our kind of budget. You can read more about the Droplit on this 3Dprint.com post.
I also got the chance to chat with the Matter and Form folks. We will be receiving ours any day now!
A 3D printer zoetrope - what a great idea and potentially awesome collaborative school project. :)
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the Made in Space project. It's pretty incredible - they plan to send their first printers into microgravity on September 21! 
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