MakerBot has always developed and encouraged educational resources and tools in 3D printing technology. It has been running summer Marathons in tech-savvy cities to educate people about 3D printing.
This year, the theme of the MakerBot’s summer marathon was STEAM education content development. The year’s first Makeathon challenge was organised at the MakerBot headquarters where the participants were asked to develop a 3D print technology into an existing plan. The second STEAM Makeathon was organised at San Fransisco, in collaboration with Tikkun Onam Makers (TOM). It was a 2-day project where participants were divided into two teams to develop STEAM driven models to get a better understanding of the technology. They then displayed their projects and voted for the best plan.
The challenge was won by the ArcheoDesignTeam that developed a project called,’ A Walk Through Time- Ancient civilisation’. This project constructed for the Common core Social Studies curriculum, where students had to embark upon a journey along the river Nile and discover 3D printed artefacts on the way. Their tour was recorded by a coded ’Ozobot’. The prize awarded for this project was a MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D printer.
The second place was bagged by the team Uber that created a project called Sphero Hat STEAM tool project. It uses a Sphero SPRK which is a programmed, robotic ball, and various programs that help in creating artwork and understanding the concepts of physics and maths. The students had to design their own clips to device a competition between two Spheros. They could also observe the movement of the Sphero Hat while holding the pens, paintbrush, and chalk to create lovely artwork.
Team Uber was given an Ozobot Bundle and a copy of the MakerBot in the Classroom, an educational 3D print and design kit.
The 3rd Makeathon event was hosted by MakerBot in Chicago, Illinois, and the 4th in Washington D.C. The 5th is due to be hosted on 25th June in Denver, Colorado. These Makeathons are a great source of delivering enhance knowledge to educators about 3D technology so that they can pass it down to their students