Students sitting in the CLIFF may have noticed several Connect Four games at the tables. What they may not know is that those games were made here at Briarcliff High School using 3D printing.
In Principles of Robotics, a new course this year, students are starting the year by building 3D printers, understanding how they work and testing them out by printing objects designed before disassembling them.
According to teacher Ted Sandomenico, students must first take the Introduction to Engineering and Design course before enrolling in Principles of Robotics or College Principles of Engineering.
The students work in groups of two or three on the printers, putting them together following instructions from a kit.
“These printers started in the 1980s and became popular at around 2015, as commercial printers. Up until five years ago, they all came unassembled, as a kit, so people who bought them for personal use had to build them themselves,” Sandomenico said. “So, it is actually somewhat difficult to buy them as unassembled kits and people who buy them generally don’t know how to repair them because they didn’t build them”.
“The students received basic instructions, which are purposefully done to be a little vague, so that they can try to figure things out on their own,” Sandomenico said. “I want them to problem-solve.”
After building the printers, students will test them by producing a benchy, which is a small model that is designed to test a printer’s accuracy and capabilities.
“If they can print a benchy, it means the printers work. Once they have a functioning printer, they can make modifications to it to make it better,” Sandomenico said. “And then they will take the printers apart, and the kit will be used by future students. Anyone who builds something can take it apart and can also repair it, since they know how it works.”
Printing the benchy should be a piece of cake, since the students in the class had already taken the introductory course, and are familiar with 3D printing.
“They learned how to use CAD to print items, such as the Connect Four games in the CLIFF, or bag hooks that they use in the class to hang their bags on,” Sandomenico said.
The classroom has ten 3D printers of various types and capabilities, acquired as part of the Bullet Aid grant, awarded to the school by State Senator Pete Harckahm.
“We used funds from this aid to purchase various 3D printers, filament rolls, (the thermoplastic that melts and creates objects), and other equipment for the school, such as a laser cutter and engraver,” said math and engineering teacher Chris Lo.
Senior Aiden Lee, who is co-president of the school’s Robotics Team, the BearBots, found the instructions challenging.
“They are not the most clear on what to do, so taking this class teaches us to get better at reading instructions, how to orient certain things, how to space certain things,” he said. “The part numbers can also be confusing, because we have two sets of instructions, so we have to keep comparing the two. It’s tedious, but it’s a good life lesson: you can’t rely on just one thing, you have to double-check everything, always. This can help me ‘build up muscle’ for the next project.”
The next projects that Aiden and his classmates will face will be no less challenging than building a printer from scratch.
“Next up will be stationary robotics and then mobile robotics, such as cars and tanks. Later in the year, the students will build drones,” Sandomenico said.
