Two partners for the first year and three for the second. The Solidarity FabLabs project for secondary schools once again cast its spell on both students and teachers from the Académie de Grenoble. For this new season, with our support La Casemate and the Académie offered students the opportunity to submit a project. Fourteen out of close to thirty entries were selected.
Like during the first season, fourteen multi-disciplinary secondary school teams enjoyed the opportunity to work in a Solidarity FabLab for the school year. The programme started with the teachers, who explored the La Casemate FabLab with its computer-controlled machines and 3D printer, before moving onto building their school’s 3D printer. They had to learn to use the printer, as well as 3D modelling software. Then it was time to start the project with their students. The suggested topics suggested covered a broad range of areas: social, artistic, and environmental.
14 schools, 14 projects
The students spent the school year discovering the 3D printer: "there were classes that worked on the project, then there were other classes that came to see what their friends were doing", explains one teacher. They had a little less than a full school year (work started in November) to complete the creation of one or more objects, leading up to a big exhibition on the Orange site in June. "We had to define our project, work with different teachers, read up on it, create sketches and designs, and then move on to the fabrication phase", says Claudia, from Fontaine College. "We worked on the way the solar system moves, with a solar eclipse as our starting point."
Mélanie, Marie, Marion and Jérémy from Vif College created a scale model of their school. "We had to take a bunch of measurements, including the buildings’ heights" explains Marion. She highlights the fact that "it really wasn’t easy, especially using some of the software." Jérémy adds, "we were super impressed when we saw the 3D printer running."
The team from Aime College created an imaginary city. Their model, which stands on an elevated base, is an excellent reflection of what cities of the future might look like: round houses, pedestrian walkways, leisure areas, and more... "we took geographical constraints into account," says Matthieu. "An imaginary city really gets your imagination going! So several classes came up with designs for houses, we picked a few, and then we fired up the 3D printer." Faustine adds, "it’s sort of magical, we get to see what we imagined!"
167 students and over 40 teachers attended the day-long exhibition. All of the students had the chance to get a close look at all 14 projects and take part in a scratch workshop. Dominique Fis, Rector of the Académie de Grenoble, took the time to personally inspect all of the projects, and congratulated the participants on "their creativity and their talent". During the second season of the programme a total of 400 secondary school students and around fifty teachers had the chance to discover 3D printing.
