Fifty-one sets of eyes grew wide as they looked out over the city of Chicago from the Willis Tower Skydeck.
What began as a discussion about 3D printers ended up in a day of racecars, virtual reality games, pizza and sightseeing for two fifth-grade classes from Southeast School in Evergreen Park. For many of these students, not only were they visiting Chicago’s most famous building, but it may have been their first time in a city skyscraper.
It all began when teacher Jeanette Ryan and her colleagues at Southeast School applied for, and will receive, a D124 Foundation grant to buy a 3D printer for their school. Talking to husband Tom Ryan, Executive Vice President of Sales at SPR – a digital technology company – the idea was born to give her students some context for understanding the uses and features of 3D printing technology. A field trip to SPR was planned.
The students were first shown the 3D printer in action, making a toy racecar based on a Lego model. Then each student was presented with a bag containing all the parts to make their own car – wheels, chassis, top – along with five pennies. (Each car took 5 hours to print. In preparation, Matt Mead, SPR’s Chief Technology Officer, enlisted his entire family to produce the components for 51 racecars.)
After building their cars, students were asked to weigh their cars with as many or few pennies as they thought would make it go fastest. Mead proved to the students that more pennies equals more weight, which means the cars go faster speed on the speedway.
For their second activity, manned by Pat Ryan, Executive Vice President, Emerging Technologies at SPR, students held computers with virtual reality software on them. By putting sensors on their hands, students were able to “see” and “feel” their hands within the LeapMotion program environment. Ryan also built an optical avoidance autonomous robot with sensors that could steer itself away from objects in its path.
“The goal was really to excite the curiosity of these kids and show them what kinds of technology is already available to them,” Mead said.
Following the technology demonstrations, SPR President Rob Figliulo treated the kids to a pizza lunch and talked to them about technology careers. After that, the students were taken to a VIP room at the top of the 110-story, world famous Willis Tower.
Student responses were universally positive:
Jasmine: “Thank you for letting us have a field trip to your company in the Willis Tower. It was so terrific. When I told my mom I built a 3D car and what I learned, she was happy for me.”
Calvin: “I have a question. How do the monitors work on the computers? Why does the 3D printer go slow? Do they have any movies casted here? When you ever went on the SKYDECK, did you think you were going to fall?”
Bela: “I also thought the sensor beams were so interesting and how it was programmed. I was amazed how this technology works.”
Trent: “Thank you so much for the pizza and the sky deck. The cars were awesome! I was that kid whose car kept winning and going the farthest.”
Angel: “I also liked the robot vehicle, it had sensors to move, that's crazy. But most of all, thank you for your time and effort to make us happy. Not doing school work.”
Brooklyn: “Thank you for sponsoring us. We really appreciate it. Now I know what a 3D printer is. The glass box out the window was really cool. It was really fun to race the cars. I want to work there when I am older.”
