Our service-learning roots go back to the 2014 school year, when Steinert Library received the district's first 3D printer through a grant. A small student club, the "Innovation Lab" was formed to learn about 3D design and printing in service of the community. Students sized, 3D printed, and assembled prosthetic hands for children through the international service group e-NABLE.

In 2018, the group drew upon on this experience and expertise, when we were approached to customize and 3D print a prosthetic hand for a member of our community.

Over the past few years, 3D printing has been slowly growing throughout the district, with individual printers in robotics and technology classrooms.

In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in global shortages of consumer and medical supplies. NY/NJ area hospitals, nursing homes, and medical personnel faced severe shortages of medical personal protective equipment (PPE). Several of Steinert High School's Innovation Lab members and advisor joined a statewide effort to 3D print NIH-approved face shields to meet this critical need. By the end of the spring, they printed more than 600 face shields to frontline medical workers. Eventually, the statewide 3D printing effort would provide more than 45,000 face shields for health care workers and first responders over the first five months of the pandemic.

These efforts inspired Hamilton Township School District to engage students in service learning centered around 3D printing to meet evolving needs of our school community. 3D@HTSD was officially formed in August 2020, with calls going out across district social media for student volunteers. Our first project will be providing the same medically-approved face shields for all staff, as we look to returning to school during the pandemic. Future projects will be determined based upon district needs and student input/innovation.

Our team currently consists of two faculty advisors and 10 active student members. We all worked together, but entirely remotely, to print, assemble, and deliver 1800 face shields before the start of hybrid/in-person learning. To accomplish this goal, we used 6 district-owned 3D printers (5 new Ender 5 Pros, and the original Makerbot Replicator 2 from that first library grant in 2014), as well as 4 personal printers owned by students and one of our advisors.

As of May 2021, we are undertaking our second project, including a design phase to customize, print, and distribute mask strap holders for HTSD staff. These "ear savers" can be used to relieve the tension and headache sometimes associated with prolonged mask-wearing. Students are working to feature school mascots on the ear savers, which are available by request for all HTSD staff, using this form.