Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team

[geomapguy]

Makerbot is now only supporting Brooklyn area high schools.....

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by geomapguy

Makerbot is now only supporting Brooklyn area high schools.....

Source?

[ChrisArmour]

Looks like there is no more funding

Updated 11/18/13: All available Almost Home funding has been activated at the moment. Stay tuned to the blog and our help center for updates on this funding offer.

http://www.donorschoose.org/blog/201...ces-a-mission/

[sanddrag]

Could the above statement from DonorsChoose be any more vague? I sent in a question to them. I sure hope these get funded. I have my fingers crossed.

It's a pretty bold statement to say you're putting these in every classroom by making over $2000 of funding available for every full time public school teacher in the US. It would reflect pretty poorly on both MakerBot and DonorsChoose if this claim turned out to be false, after public announcement.

If these are not funded as originally announced, my school and I will have literally lost several hundreds of dollars in time to get our teachers signed up for nothing. I really hope more funding comes through.

[techhelpbb]

I have several concerns about the donation process at work here:

1. Did they fully anticipate the speed with which the requests for donations could accumulate? It's a donation after all and if MakerBot is taking a loss for this perhaps there's a finite limit before which it impacts their operation's costs. Perhaps if the donation requests were metered over a longer time frame it would be less of an issue.

2. If this is completely outside of MakerBot and MakerBot makes full cost on each and every printer. As I've stated previously I am not sure that was as wise a use of the donor's money as it could have been. There are other printers that are less expensive that may of sufficed for a wider range of materials. If the printers are half the cost (for example) the donation could go twice as far.

In any event: I would like to thank the parties involved with that website for their generosity. A donation is a donation even if there are limits. I am sure that whatever prompted the sudden blockage was as difficult for the donors as it was for the reciepients who may now go without.

In the event that further opportunities like this are limited I'd like to point out that there are respectable printers down into the $500 range. They might not be MakerBots but they print and like the MakerBot you may encounter some typical issues for this technology. So the question is not really do you have nearly $4,000. With RepRap style printers it might be as simple as being patient enough to accumulate the parts a bit at a time for less than $800 in the end.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Could the above statement from DonorsChoose be any more vague? I sent in a question to them. I sure hope these get funded. I have my fingers crossed.

It's a pretty bold statement to say you're putting these in every classroom by making over $2000 of funding available for every full time public school teacher in the US. It would reflect pretty poorly on both MakerBot and DonorsChoose if this claim turned out to be false, after public announcement.

From http://help.donorschoose.org/app/ans.../almost%20home

Using our website’s technology, projects that qualify for this funding offer will appear on the site with under $100 to go and the foundation or corporate logo on the project page. However, funding is only applied to projects if citizens fund the remaining cost before the grant runs out or the project expires.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

In any event: I would like to thank the parties involved with that website for their generosity. A donation is a donation even if there are limits. I am sure that whatever prompted the sudden blockage was as difficult for the donors as it was for the reciepients who may now go without.

.

Definitely agreed. People should be careful about sounding a little ungrateful when posting here. Who knows, maybe more funding is in the works?

[geomapguy]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

It's a pretty bold statement to say you're putting these in every classroom by making over $2000 of funding available for every full time public school teacher in the US. It would reflect pretty poorly on both MakerBot and DonorsChoose if this claim turned out to be false, after public announcement.
.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[sanddrag]

The update now says all the Almost Home funding has been spent. I should mention that it seems Makerbot projects under the Visual Arts category still qualify for half off, but I'm rather disappointed with this news. This sure sounded like a much bigger opportunity than it looks like it's turning out to be. How many non Brooklyn schools were funded? A dozen?

I submitted my project less than 18 hours after the announcement, and proceeded to get about a dozen other teachers onboard. None of us would have taken the time to submit (and had the 2 "points" deducted from our accounts) had we known funding would be exhausted before our projects were even posted.

The right thing to do would be for DonorsChoose and MakerBot to at least fund the projects that were posted up through today, or at the bare minimum, add points back to our DonorsChoose accounts so we can run more projects in the future.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's now seeming like I've wasted a lot of teachers' time and made myself look foolish chasing something that was stated to be rather absolute, yet turned out to be nothing more than marketing hype and a dream now lost.

The other thing that gets me is I saw even 2nd grade classes get funded. Not to say that teaching elementary school is any easier than teaching high school (it likely is not) but how many 2nd grade teachers do you know who can design in CAD and operate such a machine, and teach 6 year olds to do the same....

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The other thing that gets me is I saw even 2nd grade classes get funded. Not to say that teaching elementary school is any easier than teaching high school (it likely is not) but how many 2nd grade teachers do you know who can design in CAD and operate such a machine, and teach 6 year olds to do the same....

One could posit something similar about high school students that build robots. 3D printers are additive and have only slight forces at work on most of their parts. One can buy extruders basically fully assembled. It should be well within the facility of most FIRST teams to assemble a printer when there are kits available. You can build a Prusa i3 out of mostly wood.

On the other hand: a grade school teacher might have a harder time justifying the hands-on likely to fall on that teacher because the students lack the dexterity to build a printer. They may need a more 'out-of-the-box' experience. We don't ask Jr. FLL to operate a lathe and we do hand them things we feel they can safely interact with. It is possible to build a 3D printer with mostly Legos.

This is just to say: obviously the donors have their reasons. There may be more logic to it than it appears.

I have to wonder: will the FRC people with their hopes set here accept a cheaper non-Makerbot printer and what if they can't get it in time for this build season?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The other thing that gets me is I saw even 2nd grade classes get funded. Not to say that teaching elementary school is any easier than teaching high school (it likely is not) but how many 2nd grade teachers do you know who can design in CAD and operate such a machine, and teach 6 year olds to do the same....

Autodesk 123D Design Suite is designed for this exact purpose.
http://www.123dapp.com/

If a teacher's goal is to promote interest that early, I see no problem.

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

I have to wonder: will the FRC people with their hopes set here accept a cheaper non-Makerbot printer and what if they can't get it in time for this build season?

We would gladly accept even just the raw materials for a RepRap if it meant we could produce prototypes overnight.

EDIT: Actually, we would accept any donations. It's free stuff, people!

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

I have to wonder: will the FRC people with their hopes set here accept a cheaper non-Makerbot printer and what if they can't get it in time for this build season?

There are quite a few better options than a Makerbot at a better price. Makerbot gives you support, which is a huge selling point for a school environment.

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

There are quite a few better options than a Makerbot at a better price. Makerbot gives you support, which is a huge selling point for a school environment.

The key elements of MakerBot support are:
1. Follow their instructions precisely.
2. Never print using any material they don't expressly say works in your model.

So I agree support is important but so is knowing the conditions of that support as a purchase criteria.

In fairness, MakerGeeks which is a small company selling RepRap and Chinese parts/printers, also provides support.
http://www.makergeeks.com/3dprinters.html

There are plenty of others. It's just a question of matching the product with the expectations.

[sanddrag]

Well, I heard back from DonorsChoose that they are working to extend the funding offer, so, I'm still hopeful.

It does look like several non-Brooklyn schools were funded. 225 schools funded in total. So, although I may have missed the first boat by a few hours, I'm glad this many schools got in on the deal, and I'm hoping there will be another chance.

I even see a kindergarten class that got one. Interesting.