When I went to The Edge I will admit I was a little worried. I have never used a 3D printer, or VR headsets or anything else they had in there. But I was excited to learn about the 3D printer so I walked in and introduced myself. The lab assistant was named Cody. He and I discussed how 3D printing works. I learned that they have spools and spools of color to choose from for your project. I told him I knew I wanted to use the 3D printer but I was not sure what to make. He told me I needed a stl file. So I asked where I could find some. Cody told me about a popular stl file site for 3D printing called thingiverse.com. I checked it out and was overwhelmed with choices. I'm a preservice Spanish teacher so my goal was to make something that would be beneficial to my classroom. I found a file that was a puzzle of Central America. I downloaded the file on a flash drive and gave it to the other attendant. He had me fill out an online form on an iPad about who I was, what I was using and why. Then he took my flash drive and pulled up the stl file on the computer. He then dragged and dropped the file to a window that had what looked like a green cube on it. But when the file was dropped to the matrix looking cube it wasn't a file with words anymore it was a 3D image. That was so awesome! Then I picked out the color of plastic I wanted from a spool. I chose green because I was making a puzzle of Central America. The project started printing and I watched for a few minutes. Cody said it would take an hour or two so I went to class. After class I received and email from The Edge saying my 3D print project was complete and I could pick it up anytime. I was so excited! After seeing how well it turned out I started brainstorming other projects. I found more websites with free stl files to download. I am going to go back and do some more projects such as an iPad stand, a sugar skull, and some historic places in Mexico and Spain. I am so excited about 3D printing!
