Mike Thomforde holds up the 3D fingers that Star of the Sea students created for him in their 3D printing “FabLab.” (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
Story and photos by Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
In their 3D Fabrication Lab classes, students at Mary, Star of the Sea School in Waialae-Kahala learn how to design and print small items — toys, small models, vases, logos and other items of their choosing.
But the students have also turned to a project with a larger purpose, designing and 3D printing prosthetics in their “FabLab” through the e-NABLE (Enabling the Future) network.
“I thought it was a great way to make connections and build relevancy to service,” Star of the Sea principal Margaret Rufo said of e-NABLE. “That’s something that we’re trying to do more and more of at school, teaching kids how to tap into your gifts and your talents and figure out ways that you can make a difference in society.
An early hand prototype sits beside other FabLab student projects. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
“We have kids who love technology, video, playing Minecraft and all these kinds of things, which are fun. But what benefit does that have on society?”
The start of 3D printing and the idea to work with e-NABLE came from aircraft mechanic, 3D printing hobbyist and Star of the Sea parent Aaron Marsh, who offered to donate a 3D printer to his children’s school about four years ago.
Rufo came up with a counterproposal. Marsh should start an afterschool 3D printing class! So he did. He has volunteer taught the FabLab class to fourth to eighth graders as an afterschool enrichment program since fall 2015.
The class is a family affair in a way. Marsh’s son, Abraham, a Star of the Sea graduate who is now a Kaiser High School student, and Marsh’s wife, Lisa, fill in for him when he’s traveling for work. Daughter, Sarah, a Star of the Sea sixth grader, sometimes shows new students the ropes and has participated in the prosthetics project.
A new challenge
After he started the class, Marsh said he noticed a problem. The students taking the class would be excited about learning to design and print items initially but then get a little bored. There are only so many plastic toys a kid needs after all.
So Marsh came up with the idea of contributing to e-NABLE, a site that provides 3D printing prosthetic models, instructions and a matching service to pair donor creators with people who need prosthetics.
Miki Mori, center, one of the students working on the prosthetics project, uses a computer program to design 3D models. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
Because kids grow so quickly, it isn’t cost-effective to make expensive prosthetics for them since they soon outgrow the devices. Three-dimensional printing has been a relatively cheap and efficient way to make alternative prosthetics. One e-NABLE child prosthetic hand costs about $15 in parts. It doesn’t matter if the plastic prosthetics hold up long-term since the children often grow out of them before wear-and-tear sets in.
Soon after Marsh submitted his class-created prototype to a newly revamped e-NABLE site, they were approved. Then they received their first “client,” not a child but an adult.
Oahu resident Michael Thomforde had lost two fingers on his left hand in a woodworking accident on June 30. While he was still recovering, the assistant pastor at One Love Ministries, Kakaako, went online looking at prosthetic options and came across e-NABLE.
Thomforde was impressed with the Star of the Sea students.
Thomforde and FabLab teacher Aaron Marsh tinker with Thomforde’s prosthetic fingers. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
“It’s really a neat school, that they are challenging kids, seeding them with these ideas that [a class] can be bigger than what they expected, and it can be more useful than just something that they can get tired of or bored with at home, you know with a toy or an instrument,” Thomforde said.
He also sees his collaboration as fitting since he’s the founder of Serving Our World, a children’s charity in Thailand and East Timor, which he runs with his wife, Rene.
“It’s just kind of ironic that my focus is children, and now children are helping me get through my difficult times, when that’s pretty much where my and my wife’s hearts are, to help kids through their difficult times,” he said. “So it’s a little bit of a payback circle.
“It’s kind of neat how God puts it all together.”
Thomforde and wife, Rene, have since done a story hour at Barnes & Noble for Star of the Sea students, and he and Rufo have discussed ways the school might work with his children’s charity.
Students with a purpose
The Star of the Sea students have been tinkering with Thomforde’s prosthetic finger designs for a few months with Marsh’s help. Marsh said it’s been trickier than expected scaling and adapting the e-NABLE child hand prototype to Thomforde, who is missing two fingers versus a whole hand and needs an adult-sized prosthetic, rather than a child-sized one.
Although the project’s been harder than seventh grader Rory Boyd expected, he’s enjoyed it all the same.
“It made me feel like there was a purpose to what I was doing whereas before it was really just [making] things for myself,” he said. “I felt that it would be fun to do something for somebody else, and actually using this amazing technology for some good.”
Eighth grader Miki Mori has worked on several versions of the printed prosthetics.
“I like making things and I thought it was really nice that we were doing it for somebody,” she said.
FabLab students have also been working on building their own 3D printer from donated parts. It’ll go to a science teacher to use in her classroom.
Long-term, Marsh hopes that the FabLab students will get to design for other children who need affordable prosthetics.
“We think that between here and the Pacific and the Philippines, we’d love to get a kid in here that needs prosthetic hands,” Marsh said.
https://digital.hawaiicatholicherald.com/Hawaii-Catholic-Herald-01112019-e-Edition/2/
