I have been working on the second course of my 3D printing specialty through Coursera: 3D Printing Applications. It digs deeper into things we only touched on superficially in the introduction course. I really enjoyed this read about the ten principles of 3D printing, and was looking forward to future courses, when we will actually design our own models.

I started getting impatient, however, when I realized that I was going to keep this wonderful class of grade 5 students for a while until their teacher recovers. I think it would be awesome to be able to prepare a project for them  that involves 3D printing, that is fun and rewarding to work on. 

So, I approached the librarian on Friday and asked her if I could make a project with my students that involved 3D printing, and she said YES! Another teacher mentioned Tinkercad, and how she was designing animals with her students from Grade 2. I decided to give it a look-see.

Usually, things online are not only glitchy, but awfully slow. I am very leery of this kind of thing, particularly since the computers at school don't have the best internet. I was pleasantly surprised with how quick Thinkercad is, however! The learning curve is pretty smooth as well.

I looked through the 5th grade curriculum and was intrigued by the concept of interconnectedness. So, I thought of a project in which students had to invent their own creatures; where would they fit within the ecosystem and in relation to other creatures? How do these creatures depend on each other? Through this exercise, I will have the opportunity to link nature in our world and how everything is interconnected, and how we must care for all things in order for all of them to survive. In the end, we will have a printed stable of creatures plus their plan, which we can make into a fictional class book.

So, as an example, I started working on my own 3D monster using Tinkercad. In Tinkercad, you can use shapes as solids or as holes -- below, a picture of my monster with all solids and holes apparent, so you can see how complex these things can get. It took me three hours from the time I started learning the program to when I was satisfied with my little guy. There were some glitches and some times when I had to use funky workarounds, but overall, a very positive experience.  I called him Derp!

I uploaded him to Thingiverse to share him with others :D

And below, what he will look like once he is printed! I sure hope he stands up. I think I balanced him well enough, but he may topple one way or another. We will see!

To make him printer-ready, I downloaded Cura, which I mentioned before in a previous post. Cura is a free program that prepares the models for printing. I processed my little guy with it, and tomorrow I will give this a shot! I am going to try and print out Derp on the school 3D printing machine!! I am so excited -- hope he will work out. If my calculations are correct, he will be around ten centimetres tall!

If not, I may need a microscope. To be continued...

So, thanks to Avi's awesome course on Emerging Technologies from OLTD, I have fallen into and finally resurfaced from the 3D printing rabbit hole. I just finished the work for "The 3D Printing Revolution," the introduction course on a 3D Printing specialization I am doing via Coursera. I learned a great deal about 3D printing these days, including about materials which are available right now for prototyping and printing, and I must say I am very excited to start prototyping and designing myself.

As our final project for this introductory course, we took a look at Shapeways, a place where you can print your ideas as well as join a marketplace much like Etsy. People can have your object printed and sent to them in a wide variety of materials, from plastic to metal and ceramics (no chocolate yet, boo!).

We also looked at Thingiverse, a place where you can download models from other users for free and modify them, then reupload and reprint the model. It's a really fun open-source library of things!  If you want a wrench that fits your hand just right, for instance, you can modify it to be bigger, smaller, thicker... it really is an amazing resource. Our final project for the course was to find an object and modify it somehow.

I looked for an object which could provide me with the widest possibility of modification, and finally found a box, done by Thingiverse creators themselves. Their editor offered an area, and you can pretty much make a box shaped like anything you can draw on that area. It's not as easy as it seems, and I found it a little glitchy with my pen, but it worked out in the end! My first thought was to make a small treats box for my dog, so I set out to make a bone-shaped box for him; however, after many attempts, I was unable to make a box that looked like a bone... it was very lopsided. So, I went with a candy box shaped like an apple, since I am a teacher and all :) it took me about 20 attempts. Not super perfect, but Thingiverse is not a modelling software!

And now, I can print this box if I want to!

According to "The 3D Printing Revolution," there are four clear advantages of 3D printing:

1. Sustainability. Low waste. On average a 3d printed product uses 90% less material than an object made using subtractive manufacturing.
2. Self-assembly: We can create complex products that come out of the printer self-assembled. As long as you leave a certain clearance between the pieces, they can come out of the printer all assembled and ready for use. A fuel injection for an airplane which we saw on the course used to have 26 separate components which had to be injection molded and assembled; now, it comes out of the printer ready for use!
3. Digitization: 3D printing creates products out of digital files. This puts an object on the same category as a music file: objects now can be shipped electronically, downloaded and printed locally. You don’t need to spend money with shipping anymore. They can also be easily modified and remixed, just like music. All of this eliminates the financial, temporal and environmental impact of manufacturing.
4. Scope over scale: injection molding became so popular because it decreases the cost the more you print. With a 3d printer, it is just as easy to make 1 object as it is making 100. The setup cost is virtually zero. Now, a small startup can compete with a big corporation, and anyone can start their own manufacturing. And a new business doesn't even need to have their own 3D printer! They can just have the idea and go to a local Maker Space, or to a place like Voodoo manufacturing, for instance. Voodoo manufacturing is a high volume 3D printing provider that has been around for a couple of years, and is able to help people print a couple hundred copies of an item without any initial setup cost. They have a room filled with a couple hundred 3D printers, and can produce a large order in a very short amount of time. While they are the first high volume 3D printer company, I am pretty sure they won't be the last.

So, the real revolution comes when you look at small businesses who had a good idea, but no way to compete with large businesses. Traditionally, it took a huge amount of capital to invest on the initial set-up of a new gadget. An injection mold machine makes it cheaper to print in large scale, but the initial set-up cost would be prohibitive for a small company. Big companies can also make tens of thousands of units of a certain gadget, and store these in huge warehouses for later sale.

So, where is this train going, and why does it matter for us?

The reason 3D printing is so impactful, in my opinion, is because it has the potential to be so green and to shift manufacturing so completely. Instead of having things produced far away, wastefully, and abusing human resources, companies will be able to produce locally, with minimal waste, and only what they need. That's another amazing thing about 3D printing... it is an on-demand solution for our needs. When I had my (now, dead) publishing house, I opted for on-demand printing for two reasons: one, it eliminated my setup costs. Two, it had the least negative impact of all. The books could be printed on-demand in North America, where I knew workers were well paid and treated well. The wood's origin could be tracked down, so I knew that the wood came from replanted forests and it was very sustainable. I also made sure that a tree was planted for every book sold. I felt pride knowing that my company was not affecting the world negatively... and I am sure that many startups feel the same way about 3D printing. Finding ways to make our goods production more environmentally friendly, and to produce things in a way that it doesn't hurt people anywhere, has to be a top priority. Manufacturing can be more humane, and in fact, it must be. This is where we can make an impact as teachers, I think... showing our students that there is another way, and that they can be inventors, creators and entrepreneurs without high cost and without big manufacturing; they can blow the wind onto their own sails without hurting others, or the planet.  

So, this is the time to jump on the bandwagon, guys! Let's get the kids interested in this type of manufacturing, because when they get out of school, things will be much more advanced. One thing I noticed it, these people who are at the forefront of the 3D printing industry, and changing the face of manufacturing -- most of them were exposed to this while they were in school. Look at the impact we can make!!! I can see a unit completely geared towards making a product and selling it in the school... I can see uses in art, math and social studies... this opens up so many possibilities.

Things are not "done cooking " yet, but the cake is starting to smell really good. While 3D printing has been growing at a much slower rate than expected by enthusiasts, this has been shifting in recent years and things are picking up. There has been an explosion of hardware companies making 3D printers; there are now over 300 companies versus only two companies back in 2009. There also have been huge advancements in 3D printable materials, with new ones coming out all the time. Finally, 3D modelling software, which were originally hand-me-downs from subtractive manufacturing days, are now being launched with 3D printing in mind, and that will be a huge help for creators everywhere.

I am really looking forward to the next course in this specialization, and even more to the one which will allow us to install and use the software to create our models. I will continue posting on the Google+ account because I think you guys might like seeing what happens next! So, stay tuned to future 3D printing developments. :D

I was checking out the emerging technologies, and came upon a world economic forum post with the top ten emerging technologies of 2016. Number one on the list was nanosensors and the internet of nanothings. It seems like the nanotechnology movement has become expanded into so many different areas these past few years.

Peter Diamandis describes Nanotechnology as the “science, engineering and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers.” Working in this field means that you are looking at a microscope, adding and constructing on a molecular level; basically, you are solving huge problems with tiny tools.

Healthcare, for instance, is one of those areas that are benefiting from this new approach to things. Scientists are inventing new ways of delivering medicine that ensure the medicine gets to the right place through the use of nanotechnology and modifications that adapt the medicine to reach the diseased area faster and more efficiently. There is even a possibility to cure cancer by using genetically modified white cells which attack only the diseased tissue. The human genome is being analyzed by nanotechnology in order to understand why there is so much apparent “junk” DNA in its construction. While we don't have tiny, tiny disease-fighting robots quite yet, we are getting closer; scientists are even developing nanorobots that would be able to help with diagnose when injected into a human being. And that’s just looking at health and the human body. There are many other applications, from energy production to communications. This idea of looking at things really up close soon got me thinking about my favourite subjects, and of possible ways I could tap into these ideas and use them in my classroom in the future. How could we use nanotechnology with our students in order to introduce the concept of working at a nanoscale? This introduces a whole new field of study for them, and I am all for getting students interested in science, particularly girls.

While it would be great to build a tiny robot that can imitate an ant, and keep it in your pocket with you always, it is just not feasible at this juncture. The first possible thing that came to my mind was the use of an electron microscope to somehow build models with the students; would this even be possible? Upon research on that topic, I fell upon something that sounded as exciting as it looks: Nanoart.

Nanoart is produced by artists who are also scientists, usually created by organizing a chemical reaction of some sort, and recording the resulting images through an electron microscope. Because of the way the electrons produce the image, you are left with powerful lights and darks, creating a beautiful balance and very impactful artwork. Artist Chris Orfescu, founder of Nanoart 21, for instance, has been experimenting with this for over thirty years; his artwork (left) includes image manipulation with Photoshop post-production, where he adds colour and gives his own flair.

So, I am here now dreaming of these science-art hybrid experiences that would take the experience of microscopy leaps further with my students. I imagine a day where my class will be able to create chemical and physical reactions that will produce nanoart, and then be able to photograph these and modify them to produce large prints of these  surreal still lives and landscapes, like the one to the right.

Some artists have been getting very creative in nanosculpting. Check out these models found on Technology Bloggers:

One day, maybe we will have easier access to tools such as these. Meanwhile, there is something I can do with them to introduce them to this type of artwork. Thankfully, there are thousands of great microscope photos online that can be used in order to enhance and create two-dimensional artwork that is unique to the student. When done right, a photo can be used to produce artwork and the resulting piece is not considered an infringement of the photographer’s intellectual property.

I found these three pictures above to use as sources: the first two are from electron microscopes, and the third is a clipart splash of paint. I played with them for a while, and came up with the composition below. This could be used as a source for a painting, for instance, or modified even further through filters and other means.

I would love to try using an electron microscope to produce art; the lights and darks, the volume that the microscope depicts, make any mundane subject a beautiful thing to behold.

I am starting to see a correlation, however, between this kind of image generation and 3D printing. The process to create art with an electron microscope produces a unique 3D-looking object that can be used as a source for artwork; meanwhile, I have been using models on my own artwork for years, and find that only with a model of what I am trying to create, I am able to reproduce light in a realistic way.
A benefit of 3D printing is that the results are not as unexpected as what you can get from chemical reactions seen under the electron microscope. You can create a unique model (your very own monster, dragon, setting or landscape), which then can be used as a model for your artwork! All students in a class could develop their painting starting from a three-dimensional model, in essence their very own still-life, and the whole thing would cost just a couple of bucks to pull off.
I think I just had another breakthrough regarding the uses of 3D printer. The more I explore other things, the more I keep coming back to it!

This weekend was absolutely awesome. I learned an amazing deal about 3D printers, the materials that they use and how they differ from each other. 3D printing works by getting a material that is soft and making it hard, or getting a material that is hard and making it soft, and then hard again. Sounds like everything that can fit those parameters can be used as materials, and people have been experimenting with all sorts of things, from chocolate to human organs.

I was really surprised to find out that there have been 3D printers since 1986. Turns out the idea came from Chuck Hall, who coined the term "stereo lithography," which is why a file for 3D printing has the ending STL. These files can be used by all types of 3D printer, not only the most common one that we use. As it turns out, there are three types of 3D printer, and it's neat to learn about them all. Please excuse me while I geek out and talk about the scientific difference between these super cool pieces of tech!

The first one, Stereo lithography or SLA, is really the stuff of sci-fi movies: a laser beam swims around a liquid, and as it touches the liquid, it hardens the material. The object rises from the liquid, like magic. The materials are made of resin, and normally not very strong; they are good for little things such as jewelry or chess pieces, but not for a car part, for instance. You can find a desktop version of these machines for about three thousand dollars.

Selective laser sintering machines (SLS) are a little like SLAs, but instead of using a liquid, they utilize a fine dust. So, the laser touches the dust and fuses it together just right, to create a piece that literally emerges from the dust. This dust can me made of a variety of materials, even metal. These pieces are high resolution, and super strong. You can even print airplane parts with this! However, the thing is super expensive, the cheapest one being thirty thousand.

Finally, Fused deposition models, or FDM, are the machines we are used to, commonly found in our schools. It works by melting a filament that is then extruded through a nozzle, which moves in all directions through a set of arms and gears.  The range of materials that are available is constantly growing; the most common one is polyactic acid, or PLA, which is actually corn-based and completely biodegradable.  You can find them in a range of prices; Amazon has them for a few hundred bucks.

One thing that really amazed me was how cheap the material generally was. Knowing that the material is biodegradable, and knowing that each model probably only costs 20 to 30 cents, just makes me feel so great about advocating for the use in schools. The material spools of plastic are just twenty bucks a kilo; they come in all sorts of colours and are pretty long-lasting.

I just have to get over the time it takes to print anything... but hopefully this, too, is getting improved with time?

I was a little bummed by the very visible ridges that appear on the final models using FDM technology, but after a little research, I found that the models can be smoothed out with a brush and a piece of rag moistened with acetone (not very environmentally friendly, but hey, we use nail polish remover all the time, and it sounds like this uses much less!). The best way is acetone vapor, but the words "acetone" and "vapor" together in the same sentence make me very nervous.

Another thing that amazed me was how complex the file itself has to be in order to print a 3D object.

Like I said before, every 3D object is saved into an STL file; STL is like a PDF for 3D printing. But here is the thing -- an STL file is not ready for printing. It's just your model, done really nicely, but not really carrying any information regarding what to do with it.

This file needs to go through a process called "slicing," where the object is not only sliced, but where the software analyzes and comes up with the best path for the nozzle to follow in order to build the object, creating a little map.  Each printer comes with its own slicing software; Cura, for instance, is the free program that comes with Ultimaker, and it is the program that will turn the STL file into something that can be read by the printer.

While you are slicing, you can also control how thick you want the object, and how much filling will be used... so you can control waste of material as well.

The printer follows this recipe and prints out the 3D model. Isn't this cool? :)

I'm really looking forward to learning how to design my object as well as preparing it for printing... and of course, holding that little musical instrument for the first time!

And, speaking of 3D printing musical instruments... after a short search online, it sounds like musicians are even more excited than me about the possibilities!

I'll leave you guys with this 3D printed guitar! Fun, right?

Oh boy. So, after looking at some of the information on 3D printing through our 509 coursework, I ended up signing up for a 3D printing specialization through Coursera!

The main teacher is Aric Rindfleisch, but the course so far has brought to us many different views from professionals in the area. I have already learned some very interesting things, and considered facts regarding 3D printing that I had not considered before.

For instance, 3D printing is considered an additive construction, as opposed to subtractive construction; that sounds pretty intuitive, but when you stop to think of what that actually means, it's pretty incredible... additive construction virtually eliminates waste from your prototyping! Subtractive construction, such as laser cutting or wood working, has a lot of leftover parts, and a lot of wasted material. You also need a lot of space to store a variety of wood pieces.  On laser cutting, while you can quickly cut a wood board (in seconds, instead of all the time it takes to use a 3D printer), you also have to assemble the pieces together, which is an added negative on top of the waste. On one of the lecture videos, we also saw an injection molder (pictured above), which I had never seen before; it transforms plastic beads into a single object, and can create each object in a super short amount of time; their example, a poker chip, could be done in 16 seconds! The same object would take twenty minutes in a 3D printer. But, an injection molder only builds ONE object per machine.  That is a huge disadvantage -- unless you have a poker chip factory, that is.

I liked how the course gave us an overview of all these technologies, showing us that each one of them has its place; you wouldn't want to 3D print everything under the Sun, but instead, use the right tool for the right job.

My favourite discovery so far has been the existence of Hacker Labs. These are places around the globe where tinkerers can pay a monthly fee, and basically use all the tools and materials, as well as have the opportrunity to network and find guidance from other people who tinker. These hacker labs have everything! EVERYTHING, I mean, they are amazing. They have sections with 3D printers, circuitry, metal work, wood work, injection molders, sewing machines... and they have one right here in Vancouver as well. Their monthly fee is $30... if I had more extra time, I would probably join them. Maybe someday?

As my first assignment for this course, I finished this video with my plan for my final project in this specialization. You can watch the video below! Wish me luck, everyone!