JANUARY 11, 2019 HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD
HAWAII
3
Star of the Sea students use 3D printing for a purpose
Story and photos by Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
In their 3D Fabrication Lab classes, students at Mary, Star of the Sea School in Waialae-Kaha- la learn how to design and print small items - toys, small mod- els, vases, logos and other items of their choosing. But the students have also turned to a project with a larg- er purpose, designing and 3D printing them in their "FabLab" through the e-NABLE (Enabling the Future) network. "I thought it was a great way to make connections and build rele- vancy to service," Star of the Sea principal Margaret Rufo said of e-NABLE. "That's something that we're trying to do more and more of at school, teaching kids how to tap into your gifts and your tal- ents and figure out ways that you can make a difference in society. "We have kids who love tech- nology, video, playing Minecraft and all these kinds of things, which are fun. But what benefit does that have on society?" The start of 3D printing and the idea to work with e-NABLE came from aircraft mechanic, 3D printing hobbyist and Star of the Sea parent Aaron Marsh, who of- fered to donate a 3D printer to his children's school about four years ago. Rufo came up with a counter- proposal. Marsh should start an afterschool 3D printing class! So he did. He has volunteer taught the FabLab class to fourth to eighth graders as an afterschool enrichment program since fall 2015. The class is a family affair in a way. Marsh's son, Abraham, a Star of the Sea graduate who is now a Kaiser High School stu- dent, and Marsh's wife, Lisa, fill in for him when he's traveling for work. Daughter, Sarah, a Star of the Sea sixth grader, sometimes shows new students the ropes and has participated in the pros- thetics project.
A new challenge
After he started the class, Marsh said he noticed a problem. The students taking the class would be excited about learning to design and print items initially but then get a little bored. There are only so many plastic toys a kid needs after all. So Marsh came up with the idea of contributing to e-NABLE, a site that provides 3D printing prosthetic models, instructions and a matching service to pair donor creators with people who need prosthetics. Because kids grow so quick- ly, it isn't cost effective to make expensive prosthetics for them since they soon outgrow the de- vices. Three-dimensional print- ing has been a relatively cheap and efficient way to make alter- native prosthetics. One e-NABLE child prosthetic hand costs about $15 in parts. It doesn't matter if the plastic prosthetics hold up long-term since the children often grow out of them before wear-and-tear sets in. Soon after Marsh submitted his class-created prototype to a newly revamped e-NABLE site, they were approved. Then they received their first "client," not a child but an adult. Oahu resident Michael Thom- forde had lost two fingers on his left hand in a woodworking accident on June 30. While he was still recovering, the assistant pastor at One Love Ministries, Kakaako, went online looking at prosthetic options and came across e-NABLE. Thomforde was impressed with the Star of the Sea students. "It's really a neat school, that they are challenging kids, seed- ing them with these ideas that [a class] can be bigger than what they expected, and it can be more useful than just some- thing that they can get tired of or bored with at home, you know with a toy or an instrument," Thomforde said. He also sees his collaboration as fitting since he's the founder of Serving Our World, a chil- dren's charity in Thailand and East Timor, which he runs with his wife, Rene. "It's just kind of ironic that my focus is children, and now chil- dren are helping me get through my difficult times, when that's pretty much where my and my wife's hearts are, to help kids through their difficult times," he said. "So it's a little bit of a pay- back circle. "It's kind of neat how God puts it all together." Thomforde and wife, Rene, have since done a story hour at Barnes & Noble for Star of the Sea students, and he and Rufo have discussed ways the school might work with his children's charity.
Students with a purpose
The Star of the Sea students have been tinkering with Thom- forde's prosthetic finger designs for a few months with Marsh's help. Marsh said it's been trick- ier than expected scaling and adapting the e-NABLE child hand prototype to Thomforde, who is missing two fingers versus a whole hand and needs an adult- sized prosthetic, rather than a child-sized one. Although the project's been harder than seventh grader Rory Boyd expected, he's enjoyed it all the same. "It made me feel like there was a purpose to what I was do- ing whereas before it was really just [making] things for myself," he said. "I felt that it would be fun to do something for some- body else, and actually using this amazing technology for some good." Eighth grader Miki Mori has worked on several versions of the printed prosthetics. "I like making things and I thought it was really nice that we were doing it for somebody," she said. FabLab students have also been working on building their own 3D printer from donated parts. It'll go to a science teacher to use in her classroom. Long-term, Marsh hopes that the FabLab students will get to design for other children who need affordable prosthetics. "We think that between here and the Pacific and the Philip- pines, we'd love to get a kid in here that needs prosthetic hands," Marsh said.
Clockwise from top, Mike Thom- forde holds up the 3D fingers that Star of the Sea students created for him in their 3D printing "FabLab." An early hand prototype sits beside other FabLab student projects. Thomforde and FabLab teacher Aar- on Marsh tinker with Thomforde's prosthetic fingers. Miki Mori, center, one of the students working on the prosthetics project, uses a computer program to design 3D models.
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