The Crafty drop challenge
Tablet Academy is a UK based impartial organization created to support educational institutions in transforming teaching and learning through the integration of new and existing technologies, strategic consultancy, end-user teacher training, and student engagement programmes.
As part of their student engagement programmes, Tablet Academy has teamed up with Craftbot and the RAF Youth & STEM Team to provide 4 Secondary Schools with the chance to participate in a 3D printing challenge. The winning school could keep their Craftbot printer for free and also received a 3D printing lesson plan for the start of the new academic year.
The project’s aim was to search for enthusiastic and open-minded teachers, looking to inspire their students with the world of STEM and 3D printing.
Any Independent or State Secondary School in England or Wales could apply to take part in a STEM Challenge. Four lucky schools were chosen to host a workshop day when the 3D design and print challenge for students were introduced. The selected schools got to hold onto a Craftbot 3D printer until the end of the project, giving the opportunity to provide all the students with the chance to enter the challenge.
The competition’s mission was to help out „Crafty” the craftbot. Crafty wanted to take a leisurely flight from a height of 10m to the ground, and he wanted to enjoy his flight for as long as possible before landing as gently as possible.
Using only parts produced using the provided 3D printer, as well as Crafty’s scavenged parts, the students were to construct a vehicle of their own design to safely land Crafty, when thrown or dropped from a 10m height, having taken as long as possible to reach the ground.
The participants were enthusiastically working on the project and tried their best to come up with some unique ideas. They could not only develop their design skills, but also their communication skills as they were being able to visualize their ideas, brainstorm together, explain to each other what they have in mind and then put them into practice.
From an educator point of view, having a 3D printer in the classroom is an exceptional opportunity to show the students the technology of the future. The participating teachers shared their experience about this 3D printing challenge in the following video.
Out of the 4 participating schools, the Mayesbrook Park School turned out to be the winner with 4 project submissions. The students put together complete project documentations of their projects in which they explained how they reached their final ideas from scratch.
2 student’s submissions from the winning school
Having an opportunity to join a STEM educational project can be a turnover point in the daily operation of schools. When teachers get to know how widely they can integrate the usage of a 3D printer into their teaching methods, a whole new world opens up for them. We truly hope that Mayesbrook Park School will experience the same and will enjoy teaching students this new technology with their new Craftbot Plus Pro 3D printer.
