rapman-education's posterous

rapman-education's posterous

Dave White  //  A place for educators, teachers, lecturers and students to find "stuff" about RapMan,BfB3000 and BfB 3DTouch printers... The unofficial Blog by Dave White, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of D&T in Clevedon School UK.

Jan 7 / 9:18pm

Cubex A new 3D printer

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Introducing the new 3D printer from 3D Systems ... The Cubex (big brother to the Cube printer).
It has a huge print bed (just like its predecessor the Bits from Bytes 3D Touch). 3 colour printing and new software.

Cool!.... I'll have to start saving for one of these!

Further details from the Cubify website http://cubify.com/cubex/index.aspx?tb_cubex_learn

Filed under  //  hardware   news   printing   software  
Nov 22 / 7:58pm

3D printing at university

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Some wonderful new 3D printing developments have been happening over the last few weeks that I couldn't omit from my blog...

Early in November Ian Major from 3DS / Bits from Bytes presented a 3D Touch printer to the University of Bristol for use by their students. See the attached photos.

On the BfB forum the university also posted the following .... "The 3DTouch in the atrium of the Merchant Venturer's Building in the University of Bristol has been available to the students for just over a week now and has been in almost continuous use. So far the student have mostly been using it to print cases for their Raspberry Pis, though there has also been a Rubics Cube and I did a Venus de Milo to decorate my desk".

In another development the University of Warwick has just erased some information about some amazing new composite material that they are using for 3DP. The material that they are calling "Carbomorph" is conductive and is being used in some really interesting ways... Flex sensors, capacitive interfaces, and more. Check out this web page for more information http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121122-printing-electronic-sensors-using-low-... . This new material looks like it could have some real impact on 3DP projects made by students in schools if/when it becomes available.

Filed under  //  University   education   media   news   printing   student  
Oct 19 / 9:47pm

The DfE and 3D printing in STEM

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Department for Education: 3D printing in Physics, Maths and D&T.

 Up before 5am and boarding a train to London at the sort of time I would normally be stirring myself to get out of bed... All a bit keen really!... And the sort of thing that I normally have to have a good reason to do. And the good reason was that I was asked to do a presentation about 3D printing in schools for the Department for Education (the DfE is our government body in charge of education here in England). I must say that it was a real honour and privilege to be asked to do this.

 One of the reasons I was asked to do this was because the DfE is setting up a pilot project to look at how 3D printing can be used in STEM subjects... With special emphasis on the mathematics and physics areas.

 If you are a return visitor to my blog then you might realise that I am a D&T teacher at Clevedon School, but I have some experience of developing teaching and learning projects and resources in other subject areas... In fact I'm currently working on some new projects to try out with my own science department very soon (more of this in a later post perhaps)... And that's why I was asked along to share my previous experiences.

 Anyway I think my presentation kicked off the day ok... Some of the delegates even laughed (or raised a smile) at my feeble jokes (yes I do have a very strange sense of humour) ... Quite proud really as presenting in the first slot of the day can be difficult, people need to warm to the atmosphere and are often wondering what they have let themselves in for!

 But I expect you are wondering where the physics and maths fits in with all this and what the pilot project is all about. I suppose in a nutshell it really boils down to the fact that 3D printing has so far really only been in the domain of designers, technologists and engineers. This project is looking to break out of this and involve mathematics and science. And why not? I have exported some cross curricular links before but this project has really got my mind buzzing with the potential uses for this technology in these areas other areas of the curriculum and there should be more to follow in a later blog post about this.

 So, what else happened at the meeting? The other presentation was led by Stuart Douglas from Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy. Stuart's school is lucky enough to have some very high end 3D printing equipment and he brought a very different perspective to the project. The delegates were given an opportunity to explore what their first steps will be in introducing this technology to these other STEM subjects and Makerbot gave a demonstration of the equipment that is being made available.

 I have just got home and its now 9:30pm... Feeling pretty exhausted, but it has been a fantastic day. I would just like to say thank you to the DfE for inviting me along to the day, and my school for letting me attend (and also the teachers who covered my lessons during my absence) and of course 3DS/Bits from Bytes for the support they give me (and my school) which has enabled me to have a bit of a head start in "3D printing in schools".

Oh, and finally, I hope to publish my presentation a bit later... It's a bit big to upload at the moment so ill have to do a bit of pruning and editing!

EDIT.... here is the powerpoint... it gives an idea of what my presentation was about, but without the verbal content it may not give the whole story.

 

Click here to download:
DfE_presentation.pdf (2.73 MB)
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Filed under  //  conference   education   news   printing  
Jul 4 / 5:23pm

West of England ICT Conference 2012

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Our D&T department got a special mention in the keynote speech by Tim Rylands at the WEICT12 conference?... All about the way we are using our Bits from Bytes 3D printing with students.

Rather than repeating about Tim's fact finding visit or what we actually do with our 3D printers why not scroll down through my department blog and see for yourself.... It really is cutting edge stuff!

http://www.clevedonschool.org.uk/blogs/products/

And of course here on my RapMan Education Posterous blog there is a load of information to browse.

Filed under  //  D&T   Product Design   conference   education   news  
Jun 7 / 1:18pm

To baldly go... (3D Printing)... Part 2

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Following on from a previous post "To baldly go" Tim Rylands who visited D&T a couple of weeks ago has blogged about 3D Printing in the Design & Technology department here at Clevedon School. It makes a really interesting read, so check it out here http://www.timrylands.com/2012/06/07/3d-printing-at-clevedon-school/

Thanks Tim for the brilliant and very complimentary blog post!

Filed under  //  D&T   Product Design   media   news   teachingandlearning  
Jan 27 / 10:28pm

Students Recreate Eruption Effects with RapMan

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I really don’t think I have to say too much about this article, just have a read J

North Somerset Mercury Jan 27 2011

 

Filed under  //  Education   Media   News   Teaching and Learning  
Jan 20 / 6:26pm

Times Education Supplement

TES – The Times Education Supplement is published weekly for teachers and educators and has a circulation of over 50K copies in the UK.

On 14/1/2011 in the “Noticeboard” section the following brief article appeared about the use of RapMan in my school to print 3D terrain models – a cross curricular project with D&T and Geography.

It has already generated interest and as a result other schools have e-mailed to find out more details.

Free resources for this project can be found here http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Geography_-_3D_Terrain and here http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Geography_-_Mount_Saint_Helens_Volcano

Tes_recon

Filed under  //  Education   Media   News   Teaching and Learning  
Jan 18 / 6:38pm

Guardian Classroom Innovation Award - Results

Just a quick post to let you know the result of the Guardian Classroom Innovation Award competition….. we didn’t win L

Ok, so we didn’t win.... but we were not unsuccessful! Lots of people, teachers, students etc. got to hear about 3D printing as a new technology that is “accessible” to students, schools and colleges.  Clevedon School and BfB were "in the public eye", online, at the BETT Show and on BBC radio….  and to me, that makes it all the more worthwhile.

 

I'm still really pleased that we made it through to the final 3 in a UK wide competition... maybe next year.... ????

 

If you missed out on all of this then have a look here for the results and to see the videos from the shortlisted entries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/classroom-innovation/classroom-innovation-awards-sh...

 

And finally, a HUGE thank-you to everyone who voted for us either by e-mail or at the BETT show.

 

Dave

 

Filed under  //  Media   News   Teaching and Learning  
Jan 10 / 5:18pm

Guardian newspaper's Classroom Innovation Award .... UPDATE !!!!

UPDATE !!!!!

I have just heard earlier today that our entry to the Guardian newspaper's Classroom Innovation Award has been shortlisted. (for details see my blog entry 2 below this one)

The top 3 presentations are now to be shown on the Asus stand  at the BETT 2011 show in Olympia, London, UK. Visitors to the stand can then vote for the best idea.

So if you are going to the BETT show please drop into the Asus stand Hall/Stand:  K29and vote for us... J

Don't forget you will be voting for Clevedon School’s 3D Printing video in the secondary school category J

Dave

... Oh, and in all my excitement I almost forgot.... A HUGE thank-you  to everyone who e-mailed their vote for us

 

Filed under  //  Education   Media   News  
Dec 5 / 12:21pm

Education Ambassadors at Euromold

We have just arrived back from the Euromold show in Frankfurt. Bits from Bytes and 3D Systems invited me and a couple of students as Education Ambassadors to highlight the use of RapMan and BfB3000 3D printers in a schools context.

Throughout the show I was able to give presentations at the 3D Systems theatre showing examples of students work in 3D printing and the work I have done in developing teaching and learning resources and projects to give educators a hand in getting started and developing their use of 3D printers in D&T, STEM and cross curricular lessons.

The students and I also supported some German universities in the “RapMan Challenge”… the students competing to build a RapMan and print their first object. As the challenge was so successful this was also followed by a challenge to print the most interesting, high quality, innovative object. The winning universities were presented with a prize of a RapMan printer, materials, and a double head upgrade.

The student ambassadors were able to talk to the university students, potential customers and other educators about how 3D printing has enhanced their education and how they are using our schools printers to make objects for their A’Level exams. The students were also able to visit the stands and see how Rapid Prototyping is done with the large machines that are used commercially.

Unfortunately we did have some technical difficulties with Wi-Fi at the show and were unable to do any live blogging at the event, however in a few days’ time I will hopefully publish a more comprehensive report of our visit and some more photos.

Frankfurt was very cold and snow had recently fallen but this didn’t stop us from visiting a Christmas market in Darmstadt and also eating typical German food in a restaurant.

We had a fantastic time and wish to thank BfB and 3D Systems inviting us to attend Euromold for their friendliness and generosity.

Dave

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Filed under  //  Conference   Education   News   Teaching and Learning