As I've mentioned, I've come into a great opportunity to help a 3D Printer company create lessons for STEM units and, in turn, I'm testing out a printer of theirs. Yes, I'm the kid in the candy store that you refer to.  The only problem?  I've never been in this candy store and it's pretty daggum difficult to figure out.

The first thing I did when I showed up to the house with a giant box of fun was let my oldest son check it out.  My wife would think I was a nerd (accurately), so I went for the most appealing reaction.  He was just as stoked as I was and he had no idea what this giant box inside of a giant box could do.  Sure enough, it wasn't long before it was all set up and we were ready to rock.

I received the 2.5 hour training over at Airwolf and had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, so I flipped open the MacBook Pro like the confident person I am and whapped away at the keys until... I realized I had no idea what I was doing.  Sure, I knew how to do all the steps that Cameron taught me, but it's pretty intimidating to actually print out a product of your own work.  Fortunately, they provide every printer with a MicroSD card filled with some sample prints.  

Knowing that my son is into dragons at the moment, and he has a birthday party coming up, there was a file that had a dinosaur.  Close enough, right?  Lo and behold, the sonofagun looks like a dragon!  I preheated the printer, queued it up, and hit print.  A little over 5 hours later, I came back to the garage to check out what the dragon looked like (OK I lied, I was in there every 20 minutes marveling at how cool this piece of equipment is. Judge me, I don't mind).

Now that I've printed out my first 3D product, I've got the confidence needed to really get this ship sailing.  Tonight, I powered it on, got right to work, and started to print out a version of a wrench.  It is metric, going from 7mm to 15mm.  I'm not predicting it to be very strong, but will be a great tool for my boys as they help out in the garage.  The biggest problem?  It started out as a glob of filament oozing out of the hot end.

Wonderful.  So my first print was a facade, and now I'm stuck staring at this machine that I thought was my new best AI friend.  Mentally going back through the training with Cameron, I remembered something about the temperature of the bed (where the object gets printed) and how that can affect the extruder (the piece that squirts out the filament).  After checking that, I realized that this was the problem and fixed it (the bed & filament weren't hot enough, so it got stuck in the feeder... Simple fix, dummy mistake).

What have I learned so far?


-- 3D Printers are awesome and should be in every school
-- 3D Printers take a lot of patience and attention to detail
-- You're going to make mistakes. Don't think of the mistakes as $$$
-- For the first time in many people's lives, they will enter a learning curve
-- The entry point will most likely feel like a beginner
-- The applications of printed objects is nearly unlimited... really
-- I have a lot of learning to do

This is the first time in a long, long time that I've felt like I am under-gunned when it comes to something related to technology.  All devices are pretty easy to figure out, the new software updates and apps are a pretty quick turnaround, but this is different and I love it.  I'm enjoying the fact that I have a lot of learning to do.  I'm enjoying the fact that there's discomfort as to whether or not the next try will be a success.  

My printing experience will most definitely be a journey filled with ups and downs, but I am eager to figure out where else this can take education.  As of right now, I'm watching it dance back and forth to create a simple rendition of a metric wrench.  Soon, it will be printing far more sophisticated products that I hope to take to classrooms at CJUHSD in the fall.

Happy Stumble-Trip-3D-Regain-Composure Fishing

OK, so a super short post, just because I want to document the journey that comes along with this.  I've been asked by Airwolf3D to create lesson plans for a STEM curriculum and I couldn't be happier to work with a company who works so closely with educators to create a product worth our time and money.  To help with that, I'm test driving one of their Airwolf3D HD machines.  

I'm still figuring out the printer itself and test driving its capabilities (and my competency with the programming), but this is a whole new world that I'm excited to be a part of.  As a math teacher, I had a hard time making some math real.  As a STEM teacher, it was a lot of theoretical and paper modeling.  With a 3D printer, kids can create their own realia and publish their own artifacts to test out.  For now, it's time to retreat to the man cave to tinker.

Finally, if you have ideas for lessons that lend themselves to a 3-Dimensional product, let me know and I'll do my best to create something that can be printed out and give you credit.  If it's cool enough, small enough to ship for cheap, and isn't an embarrassment of my inability to think in three dimensions, I'll even send you the finished product.

Happy 3D Fishing!