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Macksville High School

Macksville High School

Respect - Honesty - Pride - Teamwork

Telephone02 6568 1066

Emailmacksville-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

3D Hands Project

Macksville High School is working towards becoming an e-NABLE community school

State of the art 3D printer in action!

During term one the Year 8 STEM class assembled 3D printed hands.  The hands were printed on Macksville High School’s state of the art 3D printer. The incomplete hands were finished off on behalf of the term one STEM group, and are now ready to be donated to people who need a hand through the volunteer organisation e-NABLE.

These hands can change the lives of amputees or people born without hands.

Macksville High School is working towards becoming an e-NABLE community school and as a part of that, Mrs Hughes has earned her e-NABLE Community Teacher badge.  This badge is awarded to teachers who have brought the e-NABLE Community project into their classrooms as STEM based learning activities, teaching their students how 3D printing technology can be used to change lives and who lead their students in learning how to print, assemble and design assistive devices for those in need.

Over the holidays, and for the first few weeks of term two, the printer has been flat out printing a new set of hands ready for the term two STEM students to assemble. They are ready to go as soon as normal classes resume so students won’t miss out on the opportunity to be a part of this life changing project. 

During the first term of constructing hands, it became evident that students needed more guidance than Mrs Hughes could offer. They needed a manual with lots of pictures. Many students were making the same mistakes, easily fixed with some explicit instruction, so Mrs Hughes developed a pictorial instruction guide, earning a Community volunteer badge. This guide will enable term two students to assemble their hands in a more student directed way, giving them more ownership of the process.

This badge is awarded to anyone who has created or helped to create a tutorial for the e-NABLE Community, whether it is an instructible, video, or infographic.

With term two hands printed and waiting for students to assemble them, the Macksville High School printer is now being employed to print protective visors for our medical team who are face to face with the Covid-19 pandemic. The shields are being laser cut by Mr Hill in the TAS faculty improving the quality of the shields that we can offer our local medics, meeting the need for these resources in in the face of a world wide shortage.

Mrs Angelle Hughes