An Egg Drop, 3D Printing and the #FutureOfLearningAn Egg Drop, 3D Printing and the #FutureOfLearning
In August of 2020 ,in the midst of the #COVID19 pandemic, MakerGear, one of the world’s foremost 3D Printing pioneers, invited eleven schools from across the United States to compete in the MakerGear 3D Printed Modern Egg Drop Competition. The PAST Innovation Lab assisted Metro Early College High School Design Learning Lab in order to submit a design that would protect an egg from drops of 1.3m (7’), 4.3m (14’) and 7.8m (25’ 6”). The device was entirely designed by the Metro Design Learning Lab students and several of them are members of Metro’s FIRST Robotics Competition team.
The Design Learning Lab students, aided by a Metro ECHS teacher (and a FIRST Robotics coach) Tyler Hertenstein and PAST’s own Dr. Andrew Bruening (Dr. B), collaborated to design the “Red Radish Rocket” device submission to the first of its kind competition. The device was iterated by the Design Learning Lab students and was designed to take advantage of multiple new configurations in 3D printing that the PAST Foundation has been exploring though their own Additive Manufacturing Summer Institute. The design had a few design constraints:It couldn’t weigh more than 200grams of filament and everything must be 3D printed as one file.
The “Red Radish Rocket” sailed through the first round where five of the eleven teams faltered. Then it sailed through round two where an additional four teams faltered. Finally the competition was moved outside and the last three remaining teams competed. Team Eggscelsior design was modeled after the work that @ElonMusk and the @SpaceX team had put into the Falcon reusable rocket. A good design does have one thing in common. It follows on the successes and failures of the design cycle. At the PAST Innovation Lab, where Team Eggscelsior designed and printed their submission, this concept is known all too well. Humans learn best and fastest through hands on activity.. The Metro Design Learning Lab students won theMakerGear 3D Printed Modern Egg Drop Competition. They took the SpaceX idea and designed a solution modeled on real world data and expectations. This is #AppliedSTEM at its best.