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Our Story
We are a group of Americorps Members serving with the Community Technology Empowerment Project(www.technologypower.org/), an organization dedicated to erasing the digital divide in the Minneapolis/St.Paul Area. In an effort to bridge the digital divide, we serve with youth and adults to build technology literacy skills. Although we primarily train students in our programs basic computer skills and creative software, we recognized an opportunity to expand into the area of digital manufacturing with the RepRap 3D Printer project.
We were developing curriculum to teach Google Sketchup to teens at our service sites when we thought, "wouldn't it be cool if we could make physical models out of our 3d designs?" Enter the RepRap project, an open source, incredibly cheap version of a 3d Printer, a technology that has traditionally been financially out of reach for the average person. Our goal is to partner with youth organizations to build 3d Printers collaboratively with youth to get them excited about STEM projects and careers, while gaining useful assembly, circuit board, and engineering skills. After each site builds their 3d printer, we are also going to be supplementing each site with curriculum based on free CAD programs like Google Sketchup, to empower future students to design and print models from start to finish.
The Impact
Our first site that we are working with to build our first 3d printer is the Tronix Team at Park Ave. Youth and Family Services(www.payfs.org) in south Minneapolis. In this program, a team of Middle and High School aged youth will help us build the 3d Printer in an after school setting. After building the first prototype 3D Printer, we will showcase this printer to other community technology sites around the twin cities and on our website, to inspire the broader community to encourage youth to pursue STEM careers with 3d modeling and printing.
What We Need & What You Get
The $750.00 goal in our campaign will be used to fund the materials needed to build our prototype 3d printer that will be used at our first site. Included materials are a completer hardware kit with necessary electronics, 3d Printed connecting parts, and PLA filament plastic used to make 3d printed objects.
Our Perks for contributing to our project are 3d objects from Thingiverse (www.thingiverse.com). As a contibutor, you can choose to contribute $20.00 to recieve a small object from Thingiverse or a Large object for $50.00. Details can be found in the Perks section.
