Stephanie Harrell will bring a new generation of 3D printers into the STEM lab at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School with a $2,990 PRISM grant she won from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

Stephanie Harrel’s third grant in six years from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund will bring a new generation of 3D printers to her STEM lab at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School.

The PRISM (Promoting Innovation in Science and Mathematics) grant award for $2,990 will buy four Photon UV LCD 3D printers, supplies and protective equipment to give older middle school students experience in engineering design and acquaint them with the process used in additive manufacturing.

A field trip to Eastpoint Prosthetics and Additive America, two Kinston businesses that work together to produce prosthetic devices through a sophisticated form of 3D printing, and an introduction to Additive America president Zac Holcomb last November opened Harrell’s eyes to new opportunities for her classes just weeks before the PRISM grant application was due.

Holcomb, she said, “was really excited about getting kids involved in additive manufacturing. To see it was being used at so many different places, I feel that’s a skill that will give kids an advantage later on if they know how to use it.”

Additive manufacturing employs technologies that build 3D objects by adding successive layers of material. It’s used in the medicalstem

field, in agriculture, in aerospace, automotive and other industries.

With the six older printers now in her lab, the 3D curriculum Harrell teaches in her sixth grade STEM classes already gives students a background in 3D printing and use of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software.

“We talk about how far 3D printing has come in the last 20-25 years. I show the different types of businesses it’s used in,” she said. “We start with learning how to build an object on a CAD model and printing it out and using the engineering design process to make it better. It’s really neat to see what they come up with.”

The Photon printers, which print in greater detail than earlier filament-based printers, will allow seventh and eighth graders at CSS to continue building on those skills and creating hands-on projects that are the basis for instruction in the school district’s middle school STEM labs. (STEM instruction blends the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math.)

According to the grant application, students will research the use of additive manufacturing in local industry and develop a presentation for the class. “After presentations, student groups will define an issue they see in the school or community that can be helped with additive manufacturing and create a solution using the printers,” Harrell’s application reads.

The teacher expects students will pinpoint some issues that are typically top of mind – “nothing to do” and crime prevention, for instance – but she also expects the unexpected. “I think sometimes kids can provide incredibly simple solutions for things adults don’t see,” Harrell said.

And she’s certain they will have fun learning. “They love 3D printing,” she said. “It allows them to be creative. It gives them a little autonomy in their learning. We start structured in what they have to build, but then it goes out to their own creativity.”