2013年8月30日
Today they’re using 3D printers to make models of favorite video game characters. Tomorrow, they may be programming 3D printers to build a two-story house or fabricate replacement blood vessels from living cells.
Alex Daniels used his 3D printer to make structural shapes such as those in the foreground.
Thirteen students attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School's 3D printer camp, a two-week enrichment summer day camp (Aug. 5-16) hosted at the satellite office in Greensburg, Pa. The class was offered to high school students in PA Cyber’s School of Engineering and GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) programs.
With staff assistance, they started by building the printers themselves from kits obtained from the California company Printrbot. The printers were theirs to take home at the end of camp.
乔尔·西里（Joel Cilli）说：“我们希望学生自己构建3D打印机，因为构建过程充满了宝贵的课程。”Cilli，“辅导员”营地是学校STEM计划的研发协调员。
“物体有时需要几个小时才能打印，因此必须在课堂上共享打印机的学生最终获得非常有限的访问权限。我们希望孩子们拥有无限的访问权限，因此建造自己的打印机是一种更好的方法。”
3D打印机是一种将融化的塑料分层的设备，可以逐渐构建实心物体。Cilli说，3D打印正在改变工业世界的原型制作和制造过程。
Alex Daniels is a junior who came all the way from Chester Springs in eastern Pennsylvania for the camp. One of his projects was building a pair of stands to hold his Nook tablet, using model software from the TinkerCAD.com website. After making the first stand, Daniels modified the program to lower the density of material in the second stand - an experimental tradeoff that would speed up printing but risk weakening the clip, he explained.
丹尼尔斯（Daniels）对3D印刷充满热情，计划在PA Cyber为营地提供营地时自愿担任学生教练。
来自Uniontown的3D露营者Casey Phelan使用她的3D打印机制作物品，包括给她的兄弟奥斯汀的礼物。菲兰（Phelan）是九年级的九年级学生，她所学到的机械和设计概念将有助于她从事石油工程职业。
西里说，建筑过程帮助学生学会了机械思考。在校准和操作打印机时，他们了解了不同的速度和密度设置如何改变结果。通过使用许多免费的3D建模程序，学生在使用CAD式软件开发技能的同时创建了自己的设计。
当高级泰勒·埃弗里特（Tyler Everett）的3D打印机上的一组激光切割木制齿轮完全不合适时，Cilli使用另一台打印机用PLA塑料制造了一套新的齿轮。新齿轮运转良好。来自宾夕法尼亚州弗洛雷夫（Floreffe）的登机口学生埃弗里特（Everett）计划成为一名心理学家，但也喜欢计算机，并且正在保持自己的选择。
The chance to get his own 3D printer and learn how to build, operate and troubleshoot it persuaded Aidan Sommers of Kilbuck, Pa., to spend two weeks of his summer at 3D printer camp.
索默斯说：“这些通常会花费400美元。”由于学校批量购买了套件并抵消了部分费用，因此每名学生的费用降至180美元。
索默斯（Sommers）是PA网络的一名新学生，他和他的父母对网络特许学校产生了兴趣，因为他有能力自我指导他的教育。工程轨道和登机口学校的计划有助于说服他们PA网络是他的正确选择。
3D打印机营地只是PA Cyber发起的许多创新词干（科学，技术，工程和数学）计划之一。欧洲杯线上买球去年春天，有21名学生参加了在线课程，他们使用了Raspberry Pi和Arduino微型计算机。
Each the size of a deck of playing cards, Raspberry Pi and Arduino are miniature yet powerful electronic devices that are especially useful in teaching computing, Cilli said. Students learned to build circuits on the devices and write code in Python, a programming language.
来自宾夕法尼亚州威尔金斯堡的3D露营者Anne Kailin Northram也参加了PA Cyber的Raspberry Pi类，并且是Techshop Pittsburgh的成员，Techshop pittsburgh是一家独立的制造实验室 - Fab Lab - 原型和学习中心。她的梦想职业是成为电影界的特殊效果艺术家。
Making things at 3D printer camp was fun as well as educational, she said, laughing that, “Pretty soon my whole house is going to be filled with 3D printer stuff.”
“With over 11,000 total students, PA Cyber has a large number of advanced, motivated students like those who participated in 3D printer camp, who are interested in learning new technical skills,” said Cilli.
来源：http://www.pacyber.org/