Purposeful 3D Printing

This year, we have implemented Maker Mondays at school.  Inspired by the Engineering Design portion of the Next Generation Science Standards, students are working in groups of 1 - 3 students on various projects involving fabrication and/or physical computing.  Today, we printed two purposeful things designed entirely from scratch by students:

(1) a small necklace, the design inspired by our recent stint at the East Bay Mini-Maker Faire.

(2) the corner of a customizable picture frame.

The picture frame corner was especially victorious, since the two girls are not in my after-school Maker Club, and are among the first of my science students to use the 3D printer in their science curriculum.  Without giving away too many of their company secrets, the girls are creating a customizable picture frame, with sides that snap in and out of corner pieces.

It was fun watching the girls plan and learn.  One girl patiently explained to the other that they didn't have to design four corners... they could just design one and print it four times!  This one was, they agreed, just a "test" model.

And I was awfully excited to be able to use my poster (created at my summer internship) for the first time to help explain the steps of 3D printing to the girls.  The girls were absolutely thrilled the next morning when they stopped in to pick up the piece.  They kept saying, "We MADE this.  We really MADE this!" :)

To add:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Maintaining-a-small-scale-3D-printing-facility-in-/
http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/project-uses-makerbots-3d-print-medical-supplies-haiti.html