The school library is a place where students go to hang out, do homework, check out a book, read, or print things out. It might be the essay they forgot to print at home. It might be information for a research. It might be a picture they found on google images. Or a 3D piece for their 3D printing challenge.
The library doesn’t only have regular paper printers, but 3D printers as well. Designs can be made on Tinkercad and be submitted to the Google classroom, so the librarian can print them out.
“I think it’s awesome,” Librarian Mrs. Schnacker said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to have a 3D printer in our library. Not a lot of schools have that so I feel really lucky.”
Students can submit designs two different ways. Mrs. Schnacker posts a 3D printing challenge every 3 weeks. Students who participate can submit those designs and she will print them for free. Another way is by the free lance design assignment where students can print whatever they want for 25 cents a gram.
“Certain ways that they design their creations might not work very well, so you just have to think through the design process and that’s kind of frustrating for some students,” Mrs.Schnacker said.
3D printing has become more developed and widespread over the years. In the library, plastic is used to create designs, but students can take that same idea and apply it to real world applications. It can be used by doctors to make prosthetic limbs, by engineers to print out parts made of steel, and more.
“Having a 3D printer in the library helps our students kind of dip their toes in the water so when they go off into industries where they use 3D printing, it’s not a totally foreign concept,” Mrs. Schnacker said.
