Last year Upper School students 3D printed a full arm with an articulating hand for a young man in Honduras. This year students are embracing Design Thinking and utilizing the equipment in our new Fab Lab to design and print a hand for a 16 year-old girl in Colorado. These empathetic innovators aren’t waiting to be future leaders, they are making a difference in the world today.
Fab Lab (Fabrication laboratory) is a 21st Century workshop offering access to a range of advanced fabrication tools and digital resources to inspire students to turn their ideas into new products and prototypes. The beauty of the Fab Lab is its ability to not only inspire students but to teach them the value of learning, creating and providing the resources to have positive impact beyond the walls of a classroom.
The Fab Lab features:
• 3D Printers – A Raise3D N2 Dual Extruder large volume printer and another traditional-sized Raise3D printer
3d printers can create a physical model of virtually any shape through the extrusion of plastic based filament (PLA, ABS).
• Laser Cutter – AP Lazer Cutter
Laser cutters utilize a high powered laser to make precision cuts in a variety of materials (wood, metal, stone, acrylic, glass, paper and much more). The laser is accurate to 1/100 of an inch (.01 inches), which allows it to cut very complex, intricate designs. The laser can be programmed to either engrave (raster cut) the surface of the material or cut through the material (vector cut).
• Milling Machine – Nomad 883 Pro Desktop Miller
A milling machine is basically the inverse of a 3D printer. The Nomad 883 allows for rapid prototyping of product designs, building custom circuit boards, production of molds, and more. The Milling machine can be used on wood, mdf, modeling wax, plaster and FR1 circuit board blanks.
• Vinyl Cutter – Titan 28 Vinyl Master Cutter
A vinyl cutter opens a world of possibilities for transferring vinyl designs, printed transfer papers, and sublimation ink designs, to apparel, mugs, other substrates and of course makes great banners.
• Electronics Bench – Soldering stations, power supplies, arduinos, and more
The electronics bench enables students to take their creations to the next level with computer controls, lights, powered motion, and more.