4/30/2020 Mail - Burrus Kristin - Outlook

District staff and volunteers use 3-D printers to make more than 6,900 face shields for healthcare workers
Hensley Tim <hensley_t@HCDE.ORG>
Tue 4/28/2020 11:42 AM

For Immediate Release

Contact: Tim Hensley, APR
 
April 28, 2020

District staff and volunteers use 3-D printers to make more than 6,900 face shields for healthcare workers

Click on the photo or a video link to view the video

Produc on is winding down in the makeshi face shield lab at
STEM School Cha anooga where teachers and volunteers
have spent the past month using 3-D printers to make the
protec ve equipment for local healthcare workers. The
efforts have delivered 2,756 face shields to healthcare
workers, and volunteers have boxed an addi onal 4,163 for
delivery. The team made a total of 6,919 face shields and
several hundred ear-savers over the past month of
produc on.

“I am so proud to be a member of our Hamilton County

School system and our greater Cha anooga Community,” said
Kris n Burrus, Digital Fabrica on Ecosystem lead, STEM
School Cha anooga. “None of this could have been possible
without our business partners and volunteers.”

The 3-D printers from across the districts were brought

together at STEM School on the campus of Cha anooga State
to have a 3-D printer farm working to produce protec ve
devices for local doctors and nurses. The farm included 73
printers from school VW eLabs, STEM labs, Fab labs, and
makerspaces in Hamilton County Schools.

“We have received numerous thank you messages and words of apprecia on from healthcare workers at hospitals and re rement centers around town,” Burrus
added. “For people who work relessly to look a er the health of our community, it was important for us to demonstrate someone was looking a er them, too.

Hamilton County Schools has the world’s largest collec on of educa onal digital Fab labs, and district personnel wanted to put the 3-D printers in the labs to work in
the ba le against the COVID-19 virus.

“We have the largest collec on of digital labs anywhere in the world,” said Jim David, assistant principal at STEM School Cha anooga. “Not many school districts have
this type of technology available to make a safe face shield.”

Watch the video to see the 3-D farm at work!

YouTube Video: h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6tmxohHzYo

Photo: (L to R) David Vanzant, a teacher at STEM School Cha anooga, models a face shield produced by a 3-D printer

Hamilton County Schools

3074 Hickory Valley Rd. Cha anooga, TN 37421
423.498.7020

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