The #enableSTEMchallenge
Back in February, e-NABLE teamed up with 3D Universe, Ultimaker, Bit Space Chicago and Terrafilum Engineered Filaments to challenge schools across the USA to share how they would use a new Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer in their school or classroom to “Make a Difference!”
We received a lot of great entries, which made it very hard to choose a winner!
We have tallied the votes and are excited to announce our Grand prize, Second and Third place winners along with some honorable mentions so that you can all see how amazing these kids are and the ideas they have for helping to make their local communities and the world a better place!
Grand Prize Winner – Komarek School
We had a lot of great entries into our #enablestemchallenge contest, but the video that won the hearts of the judges came from the students at Komarek School, a K-8 school based in Illinois!
Not only did they involve students from a variety of grade levels in brainstorming ways they could use the 3D printer, but they also explained how they could use 3D printing to make a difference in their local community, their own school, and the world at large.
That is exactly what we were hoping for! How can we “e-NABLE THE FUTURE” of others, simply by being kind and using our ideas, imaginations and available tools and talents to do kind things?!
The students at Komarek shared how they would create dice and cardholders for their kindergarten and preschool classes who are in need of more tactile learning tools to help them with math. Students talked about how they would be reaching out to their local animal shelters to create prosthetics for injured wildlife, designing and 3D printing items for people in their community who may not have things they need at home and creating small toys for children who are in the hospital who might need something to cheer them up.
Congratulations Komarek Kids!
You are the winner of this new Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer as well as 8 rolls of 3D Universe Terrafilum eco-friendly Filaments, 10 complete unassembled e-NABLE hand kit parts to get you started, 10 assembly material kits from 3D Universe, 3 Demo Phoenix hands for your classroom, an online educational course from Bit Space and Official e-NABLE Innovator awards for each student who helps create an e-NABLE hand!
We can’t wait to see how many of the things on your list that you get to make with it!
A special shout-out to “Rolling around in the chair kid!” – You Rock! (And Roll. See what I did there?)
Second Place Winner – New Hyde Park Road School
Congratulations to our second place winners at New Hyde Park Road School who shared that they would create colorful 3D printed charms with inspirational words for kids in their school who need encouragement and help to stay positive. Some of the words they came up with are: “Brave”, “Believe”, “Be Awesome”, “Yes You Can” and “Stay Strong!”
“We would either work with the school social worker or school support team to decide which students would benefit from getting a motivational charm. We have a number of students whose home lives make it hard to be positive and succeed in school, so we feel any act of kindness means so much to them.”
Teacher – Cindy Hazelton
The students in Ms. Hazelton’s class also came up with a great acronym for e-NABLE!
E – Empathize with others in need!
N – Notice those around us who need our help!
A – Always think of kind ways to make people feel better!
B – Believe that even though we are kids, we can help someone, anywhere, every day!
L – Live a life filled with Random Acts of Kindness!
E – Enjoy helping others by the use of a 3D printer!
New Hyde Park Road School students, while the 3D printer is going to another school – we do hope that you will still think about creating handmade colorful charms for your fellow classmates with inspirational quotes on them to encourage them and lift them up!
Thank you for helping us to make the world a better place and we are excited to have you as part of our e-NABLE Family as you will be getting a gift card from 3D Universe, 3 complete sets of unassembled 3D printed e-NABLE hand kit parts, 3 e-NABLE hand assembly kits from 3D Universe, a Phoenix demo hand, an online course from Bit Space and certificates for each of you that helps to build a hand!
Third Place – Robo Bears at Hawthorne High School
Congratulations to the Period 1 STEM Class at Hawthorne High School who submitted an awesome video about how they would use a 3D printer to create modified video game controllers for people who have fine motor skill challenges!
“This product would feature larger buttons, a magnified removable joystick, a pressure based pad underneath and a foot pedal. It would plug into the standard controller so EVERYONE can join in the fun!”
Period 1 STEM Class Students – Hawthorne High School
What an awesome way to help someone in their own school, but also potentially thousands of other people who may have the same difficulties! We hope that your class will continue to design this and share it into the open-source community so that others can create them for individuals in need too!
Your third place prizes include a gift card from 3D Universe, 3 complete sets of unassembled 3D printed e-NABLE hand kit parts, 3 e-NABLE hand assembly kits from 3D Universe, a Phoenix demo hand, an online course from Bit Space and certificates for each of you that helps to build a hand!
Thank you for joining our e-NABLE Family!!
Honorable Mentions!
Roosevelt Elementary School
The students at Roosevelt Elementary School came together to make a fun video and think of a great way they could use a 3D printer to make a difference: By creating a 3D printable puzzle piece recycle bins that would be 3D printed with recycled materials and placed around their school and the local community to help people recycle and fight climate change!
They already do an amazing job of collecting plastic at their school and they bag it up and walk it to the local grocery store to make sure it gets recycled, at least once a month!
Shout out to the most epic classroom dance party dancers!
St. Peter Middle School
Mr. Toupence’s 6th grade STEM class takes a look at what they would do to make the world a better place with 3D printing in this video submission!
They hope to become an official e-NABLE Chapter in Minnesota and we hope they do too!
Miami Beach Senior High – Miami Beach Bots
Miami Beach Senior High school has 33 students who are involved in afterschool robotics and 3D printing! They have started a weekly robotics and coding project with a Title 1 elementary school for 3rd graders and want to become an official e-NABLE Chapter!
We are always excited to see students becoming teachers and helping others and we can’t wait to have the Miami Beach Bots FIRST Robotics team pinned on our e-NABLE Chapter map!
Joe Walker Middle School
The students at Joe Walker Middle School would love to reach out to their local retirement centers and nursing homes to find out how they can design and 3D print tools for those who have difficulties with basic tasks like opening bottles, carrying groceries and much more!
What a great way to use technology to do kind things for people in your local community!
Pfeiffer University Occupational Therapy
This was such a fun video to watch and very educational as well!
Dr. Fain, Program Chair of the Pfeiffer University Occupational Therapy program has extensive experience with 3-D printing and is passionate about providing education to occupational therapy students to expand access to adaptive equipment to those of all ages with physical disabilities.
We hope that we can gather our e-NABLE Volunteers to help come up with designs for Dr. Fain to print in the lab too! Thank you for your entry!!
Southwood Elementary
JoJo, an e-NABLE device user and his mom made a video for JoJo’s elementary school to share how they could use a 3D printer of their own!
They would work on making assistive devices for JoJo’s “old cat” who might need a cool 3D printed cast for a broken leg, other animals in need of prosthetics or other children like JoJo who also have a little hand that may want a 3D printed e-NABLE hand!
That is such an awesome way to help others – animals or people!
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone who entered our contest and for sharing your ideas on how 3D printing can help make the world a better place when we all work together to make a difference using technology and our ideas for good!
Thank you to our sponsors who donated prizes and our amazing e-NABLE Volunteers who have printed the 3D printed hand kits for our winners! We couldn’t do this without you!
Stay tuned for more design challenges and contests coming soon!