FabSlam 3D Printing
FabSLAM is a multi-week, team-based, digital fabrication competition where youth learn and practice design, iteration, and rapid prototyping skills primarily focused on 3D design and 3D printing. A challenge theme is presented and each team works to develop a product that fits the theme and meets any accompanying requirements. Each team works with a coach to help guide the team through the challenge and aid in documentation. FabSLAM culminated in a FabSLAM Showcase where teams present their products to a panel of judges and a public audience for review and feedback.
FabSLAM 2019
The focus of the 2019 FabSLAM challenge was to identify a natural resource problem in their community that they could address using 3D printing and digital fabrication to resolve the problem. The Pi STEM team presented their water filtration solution to the Pi STEM board and to a panel of judges and a public audience for feedback in Meridian, ID.
The FabSLAM competition in Idaho was discontinued and a different program was adopted, IDX. Pi STEM did not continue its competitive team with this change. Our 3D printers have continued to be actively used to print various student projects and have taken on a new life in our Engineering classes. Athea Prillaman took additional training through the iSTEM Summer Institute during the summer of 2021 and re-ignited the 3D printing team at Pi STEM during the 2021-22 school year for the IDX competition.
IDX 2022
The focus of the 2022 IDX challenge was space. Four different challenges were provided. Our team, The "Awkward Turtles" chose to focus on option 3, "space junk".
Their Mission: Design a solution that helps address the growing space junk problem. This could take the form of protective measures for the ISS and critical satellites; mitigation measures that the likelihood of tools or small parts being released into orbit during missions; end-of-life design for satellites (satellite features that make it easier/more economical to retrieve them once they’re no longer in use); or active debris removal (ADR) -- systems designed to intercept pieces of debris and redirect them to Earth’s atmosphere to burn up. Represent your solution with a 3D printed prototype. For the purposes of IDX, solutions should focus on the structure and function of the proposed solution over the technical requirements of maneuvering a satellite into place or matching speed with a debris object. Consider design features or elements that could be added on to existing technologies for debris mitigation and removal.
The team won 1st Place in the IDX competition, winning a new 3D printer for the Project Impact STEM Academy STEM lab.