Digital manufacturing: a learning tool with social return
Students at the Escola La Industrial present four digital manufacturing projects with social return as part of the education programme at the Gràcia fab lab. The goal of the project is for students to take these new technologies on board, and for teachers to have access to the tools and resources needed to facilitate their learning and use.
The four projects being developed are:
- Creation of a clothing collection using waste transformed through digital manufacturing.
- Creation of games for the elderly in the neighbourhood, to delay the effects of Alzheimer’s.
- Development of digital manufacturing tools to support craftspeople in the production of complex forms using the potter’s wheel.
- Research on the use of new biomaterials for 3D printing which would allow, for instance, the production of an eggshell.
The digital manufacturing education programme is the result of collaboration between the municipal network of fab labs and the Barcelona Education Consortium. There are currently 32 schools participating, some 60 teachers and over 800 students, working to apply these tools in their educational practice.
