It Does What?

A recent addition to the Seton Cardinal Spectacular, the Grant-A-Wish program, has quickly become a way for parents, grandparents and other supporters to fill specific needs in our classrooms. Some of the granted wishes have included items such as DVD sets, art easels, and document cameras. We can now add to this list a Dremel 3D printer at our high school!

The wish was generously granted by area businessmen and parishioners, George and Steve Mosey. Dan Reichley, Science and Math teacher, explains, “George Mosey and I had several conversations at Seton soccer and basketball games during the fall and winter. George has an intense interest in high-tech machines. He wanted to share that interest an assist our students in having some hands-on technology available for use. After some discussions within the faculty, we concluded that a 3D printer would be the best investment for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math).”

The printer arrived on the morning of March 12 to an excited group of students! Students from Mr. Elstro’s Technology Help Desk, along with students from Mr. Reichley’s Calculus class set up the printer. One excited junior, Jared Clark had this to say, “It is awesome! I can’t wait to play with it some more. I mean… work with it.”

A 3-dimensional printer is a device that makes objects by laying down very thin and successive layers of plastic material. Many objects from 3D printers would be difficult or impossible to make using other manufacturing techniques like machining. By the end of that first day, students had created a 3-dimensional cross produced from a digital file found online by student, Jacob Stamm. The cross was presented to the Moseys that day.

Technology Director, Tim Elstro added, “Because of the price coming down on 3D printers, we were also able to order a scanner. It’s a very cool device that scans an object and converts it into a 3D digital file that can be scaled or changed. We can scan Mrs. Becker and make a 3D plastic model of her. With her permission, of course.”

Since that first day, students have produced more objects from online files – a king chess piece and a frog. Senior, Patrick Marsee used the software called Wings 3D to produce a custom-made object, a double-walled container. “It’s a great device. It really gets students interest and attention,” says Reichley.

"It is one thing to know that the technology exists and a completely different awareness to HAVE the technology. Visual Arts today are so digitally driven, and the fact that we can create a 3 Dimensional product from our 2D thoughts is beyond amazing," added Allison Green, art teacher for students PS –grade 12. “We can utilize photo editing software like Photoshop, graphics software like Illustrator and from those two platforms combine the technology to create a tangible product with this new opportunity." Wow!

Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts.
It is the mother of civilizations, of arts, and of sciences.
-Freeman Dyson,
Physicist and mathematician