PARKERSBURG — A program this week at West Virginia University at Parkersburg is teaching a group of area students about 3-D printing to help spark an interest in technology and its real world applications.
WVU-P’s Workforce and Economic Development Division, in partnership with Chemours, is hosting the Teen 3D Printing Academy from Tuesday through Friday at the college.
Around 15 students, ages 13 to 17, are attending and each will be provided a 3-D printer to take home. During the week, the kids are instructed about 3-D printing, building a 3-D printer, learning the components and functions of a 3-D printer, the 3-D printing process, exploring the 3-D printing slicer Cura and settings for common materials, 3-D printing troubleshooting and using 3-D printing in various professional fields.
”We really want them to keep an interest in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) areas,” said Michele Wilson, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development at WVU-P. ”They have wanted and longed for this type of learning.
”We really want these kids to have this experience of technical programs and maybe spark the interest of a lifelong career.”
They also want to help foster an entrepreneurial interest to show this knowledge could be used to help people make things they could sell, laying a foundation for possible future economic opportunities, she said.
Gracie Butler, 15, of St. Marys High School, said she has had an interest in learning how to put things together and creating things. She was thinking about getting a 3-D printer and this program made it do-able at a more reasonable cost for her. She is looking to create items that she would like to sell, but make some little figures and things like that.
Butler has been enjoying her time in the program.
”Things have been going well and I’m a little surprised,” she said. ”It is fun to do and I have enjoyed it.”
Andrew Couch, 14, of Marietta, has had 3-D printers in the past, participated in past programs and he likes to come out and gain more experience with them.
”I love learning how to do it all over again,” he said. ”I just love being here and learning new things I didn’t learn the first time I was here.”
Couch wants to relearn the processes and he wants to be able to print some funny items for different people “to help make their day.”
3-D printing has a lot of applications that are already becoming reality from 3-D printed houses to cars.
”It is the future and we need to learn it,” he said.
The program has been done annually around Christmas time, usually the week after Christmas break, said Kurt Knopp of Workforce and Economic Development Division at WVU-P
The cost is $150 per student which basically covers expenses. The biggest financial support for the program comes from Chemours which bought the printers. The 3-D printers themselves can usually run around $230 on their own. For this program, the kids get a week of learning, training and understanding the concepts and processes of 3-D design.
”Without Chemours, we probably would not be able to do this,” Knopp said. ”It is very generous of them and we want to thank them.”
College officials said WVU-P has regularly held Kid College (for kids 8-12) and Teen Academy (for kids 13-17) programs to show local students a variety of different fields. Other programs have included technology, computer coding, medical career exploration, crime-scene investigation and more with the college hoping to do more in the future.
Logan Mace, instructor for the 3-D printing program this week, said the program shows the students that they can make fun little decorative pieces but also use that knowledge to make parts they can use in things in their own lives.
”They can take what they are learning with this technology and transpose it into other industries and things that help people and their community,” he said. ”We are teaching them how this technology works, basically from the foundation up.”
They are learning about the each component and piece of the equipment, its purpose and why it is there. It gives the student an understanding that they can address troubleshooting issues themselves, he said.
”Many areas here are a little behind in the STEM fields,” Mace said. ”This really shows that this is really beneficial and valuable to anybody regardless of what they have an interest in.
”That is what we are trying to do here.”
He wants kids to understand the technology just isn’t about creating fun little things.
”It can change hobbies, start small businesses and help people who need something they don’t have access to,” Mace said. ”3-D printing is a technology used in a lot of industries.
”It can have greater implications in being able to help people. That is what I hope they leave with.”
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
