Thursday, January 23, 2020

New 3D Centre-Redesigning our Spaces...



At the LRC we often find ourselves redesigning and re-purposing our spaces to fit the growing needs and interests of our community. We are currently working on creating a dedicated 3D Centre, which will house our growing collection of 3D printers, 3Doodler printing pens as well as laser engravers and cutters.

While we love our XYZ da Vinci: Duo, 1.0 and Junior Pro, we have recently invested in a collection of CR-10 printers from Creality. These are very versatile machines and fairly simple to operate and maintain. They also use open source software like Repetior Host and Cura and non proprietary filament.


 We are also making space to house our new Glowforge Pro laser cutter, which we hope to have up and running in the later half of August.

This 3D  Centre will be open for drop-ins, class sign-ups and regular ICT department lessons, as well as Makerspace clubs and activities. We look forward to seeing our staff and students make wonderful use of these resources.

We are in the process of building up our cooking resources and creating  a cooking centre/kitchen area. This project will eventually move to the front of the LRC, once we work out electrical access, shelving and an extractor for the area.

Despite this delay we have set up a provisional are for it outside the ICT/LRC office to facilitate Life Skills group visits,  and our LRC Cooking Club which runs each Thursday from 2-3.

During this term, we will be focusing on microwave meals and tasty toaster treats, as we support our senior students in their preparations for University in the fall.


Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Did you know that....

...the LRC Makerspace and ICT Lab is dedicated to providing a wide variety of opportunities for students to work with robots and other programmable devices such as MicroBits and Arduinos?  
We also have plenty of engineering and design technologies, kits and tools, including 3D printers. Students can access these items through extra curricular activities, ICT and other subject lessons or by simply dropping in and speaking to staff about the areas they would like to explore.