3D Printing for Safety

I took a call from one of our administrative assistants this afternoon near the end of the school day, and she told me that a student was asking to show me something.

When I went out to see the student he asked me to come with him to a teacher's classroom to see something him, another student, and an engineering teacher were thinking about.

I obviously obliged.

When I arrived the teacher told me that he had been thinking about school safety since a presentation was given by our local police department, and that he and the two engineering students thought of a way to better secure classroom doors in an emergency by creating a hinged metal frame to extend across door windows that would not only secure the window but also the door itself. When closed it would stick out no further than boxes that cover wires, and when opened would automatically click on the other side to a latch. A teacher would only need to unclick the frame, and it would open and lock on its own. They had built a quick model out of cardboard.

Obviously an awesome idea. It's great that students and staff are actively thinking about ways to make the school safer. Seeing it and leaving it at that would make this a great vignette about what's beneficial about critical thinking and solution-based learning. It would be a great example of student and staff investing in their school community.

But there's more.

We got to talking about taking it to the next level and building a more authentic prototype, and using the resources we have in our vocational technical high school to make this idea a reality.

One of the students said we could fabricate the metal in our manufacturing shop, and the other student said we could use the 3D printers in drafting to figure out how to build the latch.

The students said they would begin drawing up the designs to begin prototyping, and figuring out the measurements and math required to make the gate expand and move exactly how it needs to and the teacher said he would oversee the engineering. They also said they could figure out how to manufacture the whole thing for less than $10.

We are always looking for ways to make the school safer; the high prices we pay for security upgrades is well worth it if our school is safer, but imagine for a moment if this idea produces a viable prototype.

$10?! Sometimes my lunch costs more.

I don't know what will come from the prototyping, and whether this particular idea will produce as designed.

What I do know is that tools like 3D printers aren't awesome because they're cool; they're awesome because they represent the idea that one doesn't  have to purchase their solutions. 

What I do know is that when you have a community of problem solvers they may come up with ideas that solve problems.

What I do know is that when you have the tools in your school to allow the problem solvers to actually produce the thing meant to solve the problem they just may create the solution.

What I do know is that our first instinct is often to pay for someone to solve the problem, but outsourcing becomes less necessary when we can do it ourselves.

What I do know is that when we have the full capacity to create we're less dependent.

All you need are problem solvers and on-site prototyping.