Ideas Becoming 3D Reality

In my class called “Rapid Prototyping”, we’re closing it off with our last unit called “3D”. This unit was particularly very intriguing to me, because 3D printing seemed like such a futuristic hobby to me.  We learned the specs of types of 3D printers, material that can be used for production, how to estimate the area of a function with Riemann sums, how to measure length, width, and height, and what may be good or bad to bring into the 3D printing world. The class took a field experience to the Museum of Science and Industry. We saw 3 exhibits. At the “Toy Maker 3000” , we saw a toy go through the process of being made in a factory. In “Robot Revolution” , we saw different kind of robots that do specific tasks. We also took a look at “Fast Forward”, an exhibit where we saw prototypes of inventions and the creators behind them. 
In this Action Project, we were paired up with a partner and had to go through the prototyping process to make a finished product on the 3D printer. Making our product in clay and cardboard took a lot of time. We didn’t enjoy the messy process of cutting and measuring those materials. The clay and cardboard models aren’t functional. Make our phone deck by clicking on this link. The 3D model works and serves its purpose. We were very happy with the results.