CVHS welcomes our first 3-D printer

In CVHS, there are orders for new innovative technology for the students and teachers to promote the progress of the class using technology to simplify the complexity of the subjects. One of the outstanding new innovations at CVHS is a 3-D printer that has intrigued everyone who has seen or used it.

Out of the few teachers who now possess a $2,200 worth 3-D printer, Chris Burns is honored to be given the ability to utilize the printer to teach his students. Currently, he is only allowing his students in his third period Computer-Aided Design ( CAD) class to use it. The students can feel free to use the printer as long as Burns approves their drawings.

Before Burns had the printer, students could only see their drawings in 2-D form and they were completely nonfunctional. The printer has definitely improved the students’ creativity and ability to visualize their designs in 3-D, which helps inspire students to be more creative and motivated to draw new designs.
“I think we’re very blessed. The printer allows students to see their creation come to an actual object that they can touch and use. It changes conceptual ideas to actual working parts,” said Burns.

This new technology brought new motivation into the students in Burns’ CAD class. The question is how does the 3-D printer work? One thing is for sure, it is indeed interesting to see the 3-D printer’s process of making the model. The process begins by sending the drawing in a file to the printer, where the printer jumps into action of creating the 3-D object. The hot plastic comes up the tubes and sprays small dips of heated plastic on a blue platform and slowly builds from the bottom to the top.

Although it is a fascinating specimen, it takes quite a bit of time to create the model and the larger the model is, the longer the process takes.

“Usually in the video of the website, the process is fast forward, but usually it takes a really long time for the plastic to finally finish the object. The dice in the hall took about 32 minutes,” said Burns.

Depending on the students’ intention of using the plastic 3-D model, there are different quality models that the students can choose from starting from low to high. As new technology squeezes its way into CVHS, hands-on teaching has now taken an exciting new turn in classrooms across campus.

“It is a real cool application of technology. Just getting to draw doesn’t give a full perspective of what CAD is about. It is a way to make your imagination real,” stated Brenden Brown, one of Burns’ students.