Tag Archives: maker

Maker Faire Bay Area Exhibits Grassroots 3D Printing Innovations

Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 3D Printing

Maker Faire Shows Off 3D Printing

Each year Maker Faire comes to the Bay Area and it seems the 3D printing exhibit continues to grow in scale. With 120,000 attendees and thousands of makers, it’s a great event.

Our friends at Hack Things went to Maker Faire and wrote this recap.

The section on 3D printing — a tiny part of the entire event — was bigger than what we saw in New York. And even more 3D printers were scattered throughout the exhibition hall. There were some delightful variations.

  • A team from Berkeley demonstrated 3D printing with sawdust or cement.
  • The SandBox fuses thin layers of sand to create objects. The unfused sand acts as support so any geometry can be created and there’s no need for extra support structures. This mimics a property of the much more expensive SLS (selective laser sintering) technology.
  • Fred White showed off his soon-to-be-on-Kickstarter Apex 3D printer head. It can print six separate filaments or fluids simultaneously. As he pointed out, you could print a teacup and fill it with tea in one pass.
  • Oleksiy Pikalo has a 3D printer that can draw patterns in carmel in the foam of your latte. He’s working on a version that will work for beer.
  • And the Serpentine 3D printer, designed by architecture students, uses clay to rapidly create structures.

 

Read the full write-up at Hack Things.

Visit the Maker Faire website.

Read more articles about Maker Faire.

 

“Invent To Learn” Shows Impact of 3D Printing and Makers on Education

Invent to Learn Book

Invent To Learn: 3D Printing and the Maker Movement Take Center Stage in a New Book on Education

In a new book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, internationally respected educators Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager capture the excitement of the maker movement and share the educational case for bringing making, tinkering and engineering to every classroom.

When 110,000 adults and children attend Maker Faire to learn together, exchange expertise, and showcase their creativity, it is clear that there is a learning revolution underway. Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom is the first book to introduce this phenomenon to educators and situate the lessons of the maker community in an educational context.

As schools embrace exiting new tools such as 3D printing, Arduino, wearable computers, robotics, and computer programming, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom helps them get the greatest learning return on investment. The book explores these new technologies, places them in a historical context, and advises educators on how to create rich learning adventures in their classroom.

Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of the MIT Media Lab says, “Learning is often confused with education. Martinez and Stager clearly describe “learning learning” through engagement, design and building. The best way to understand circles is to reinvent the wheel.”

Beyond an explanation of “game-changing” ways to construct knowledge with technology, Invent To Learn features advice on effective teaching strategies for project-based learning and meaningful STEM experiences for learners of all ages. The book concludes with strategies for “making the case” and inspiration for school transformation.

While Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom combines theory, history, practical classroom tips, and countless resources, at its heart is a plea to place the child at the center of learning experience. Schools may purchase the technology of the maker movement, but the greatest potential will be realized when creativity, construction, and children are the focus.

Holly Jobe, President, International Society for Technology in Education says,”Rarely does an education book come along that provides a cogent philosophical basis and an understanding of learning, thinking and teaching, as well as providing practical guidance for setting up effective digital-age learning and “making” environments.”

Get the book at Amazon.com or learn more at the Invent to Learn website.

NASA 3D Printing Initiative to Bring 3D Printers to Space

NASA 3D Printing

NASA 3D Printing Initiative

A NASA 3D printing initiative is embracing 3D printers and Maker technologies to prepare them for the future of space travel.

NASA has commissioned a company to build a 3D printer that can go into space. We reported about SpiderFab back in September 2012.

“If you’re going to explore Mars, or work on station, [and] you need to bring your own materials, then you really create a sustainable method of constructing a new habitat.”, said Matthew Reyes, Contractor at NASA Ames Research Center.

“Space Shop is our attempt to take the best practices and lessons learned from what we call the maker community,” said Dave Korsmeyer, the director of engineering at NASA Ames.

Learn more in the CNET video below.

 

Attend the First International Maker Meetup Dedicated to 3D Printing

Maker Meetup 3D Printing

Makers all over the world will be gathering this week for the First International Maker Meetup.

The topic: 3D printing.

What: International Maker Meetup
Where: Your Community!
When: November 15, 2012
Learn more at http://www.meetup.com/makermeetup/

Next Thursday, the first of our new International Maker Meetups is happening. The idea here is to get makers all over the world together, to talk about the latest issue of MAKE, and making in general, hang out with like-minded people in your area, and hopefully have a lot of fun. The main subject of this meetup will be 3D printing and our just-printed Make: Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. We will be hosting a face-to-face meetup here in Sebastopol and other people are creating their own meetups around the world. We will also be doing a Google HOA at 6pm PST/9pm EST on the 15th that you can tune into and perhaps become a part of. Participants at the meetups will get a free PDF copy of the Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. If you want to set up a meet up in your area or want to join one, visit the MakerMeetup page. We hope you’ll participate.

Whether you’re a designer, inventor, hacker, tinkerer, or weekend DIYer–anyone interested in finding out more about 3D printing and design is welcome! We suggest getting together at convenient locations such as a hackerspace, coffee shop, community center, library, or restaurant. Bring your laptops, tablets, smartphones to access the Internet and G+ Hangout On Air. The first 25 organizers will receive a MAKE meetup welcome kit that includes: 12 copies of the MAKE Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing, MAKE T-shirts, notebooks, stickers, and buttons. The top 3 organizers with the highest number of RSVPs will get a $200 stipend for beverages and food!

Make Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing

Fab Lab of the Week: MidSouth Makers Opens 3D Printing Workshop

MidSouth Makers 3D Printing

This week’s featured Fab Lab is MidSouth Makers in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here is the mission of MidSouth Makers from their website:

Midsouth Makers aims to sustain the first ever hackerspace within the greater Memphis area.  The goal of this hackerspace is bring in builders, tinkers, artists, makers, and doers together under one roof to form a makerspace.  By bringing together these people a common place can be established to meet and discuss ideas, explore various technical endeavors, and communicate these thoughts with individuals from various backgrounds.  Ultimately we seek to further our knowledge as individuals and as a group by learning what we can from each other.

MidSouth Makers was written up in local publication The Commercial Appeal:

Several members of MidSouth Makers have been building their own 3D printers in the last year. Typically, 3D printing technology, which has been around about 10 years, has been the toy of large-scale manufacturers, whose equipment costs in the tens of thousands. MidSouth Makers’ President Daniel Hess said there’s really no reason the little guy can’t get in on the action.

Hess spent about $800 on parts for his printer and bought $100 worth of plastic. However, the printer may use as little as 50 cents’ worth of plastic on each project.

Most of the printers in MidSouth Makers like it because it’s fun and they can raise some funds for their group by doing 3D Printing Build-Off events in other cities.

The group of 33 members was founded in January 2010. Members pay monthly dues to have 24/7 access to a 1,500-square-foot shop, all of the tools inside it, and the know-how of other members.

Many, like Hess, used to get in trouble with their spouses for tearing apart equipment in their living rooms. Some makers have more entrepreneurial hopes.

Maker photo by midsouthmakers used Creative Commons license.