Dream it. Design it. Build it. The Maker Movement at St. Luke’s can do it all in the state-of-the-art FabLab, especially now that it has a new Epilog laser cutter. This tool allows students to etch or cut wood and other materials with a high degree of precision using a high-powered laser College engineering programs have been using similar equipment, but this acquisition means St. Luke’s Maker Movement is literally, cutting edge.
The laser cutter is the latest mighty machine in the school’s FabLab. The first acquisition was the MakerBot Replicator. The school has two Replicators which build 3D objects by extruding plastic (think of squeezing toothpaste from the tube) onto a heated surface. The second was the ShopBot CNC (computer numeric controlled), which builds by removing material. Its high-speed router moves along a surface and can either engrave or cut wood, acrylic, or other materials.
Mike Mitchell, St. Luke’s Science Chair, says “This equipment fosters creativity by allowing students to bring life to their imaginations. The digital world enables us to work in three dimensions, but there's something to be said about "printing" that object, holding it in your hands, and then using it.”
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The Upper School students currently use this equipment to design and produce piggy banks that sort change. Middle Schoolers can join the "Makers Club" to work in the FabLab as an afterschool activity. Mitchell is excited by “the open ended nature of the technology. Think of why LEGOs are still around. They allow us to imagine, create, and then reimagine. The same can be said for the equipment in the FabLab.”
See photos and follow the St. Luke’s FabLab on twitter @sls_makers.
