Dragging shapes onto digital workspaces on their Chromebooks, members of Best Buddies constructed 3D pumpkins, composed of an ellipse between two circles.
With representatives from 3D Printing Club, Best Buddies hosted the two clubs’ first ever collaboration, a Halloween workshop, Oct. 17.
Coordinated by Best Buddies treasurer Harper Schwartz (11) and 3D Printing Club treasurer Alex Filatov (12), the clubs worked together to create pumpkin-shaped keychains, each personalized with its creator’s name.
According to 3D Printing Club secretary Kaden Chang (12), 3D Printing Club’s goal was to provide direction for the Best Buddies members to add their own personal touches.
“We brought [the Best Buddies members] through the process of how to make shapes or alter dimensions in order for them to put together their pumpkin,” Chang said. “We had to help them out and guide them through the process of getting to the finalized pumpkin, and [the pumpkins] weren’t all the same, but that’s good because they were all unique in their own way.”
Schwartz said the project was exciting for Best Buddies, exposing the members to new ways of making art.
“One of the most valuable moments [was] definitely seeing how everyone who was there really enjoyed it and saw how different it is,” she said. “3D printing isn’t incorporated in our normal classes’ curriculums, so when [the buddies] were doing it, it was just so nice to see how exciting it was because it’s such a cool thing. The examples that we saw [were] just so cool, and it was really cool to see how something you can put on a screen becomes real and how much it was such a shocker for them. They really liked it.”
Filatov said that 3D Printing Club hoped to introduce Best Buddies to a new digital perspective through the principles of 3D printing.
“Beforehand, we made an example print, and I would go around and I would hand it to them [to show] the part they’re putting in,” Filatov said. “It’s all just geometry. And I feel like that sort of communication, being able to hand them the physical piece of what they were making, helped bridge the gap between a digital model on the computer screen and real life.”
The event was part of 3D Printing Club’s initiative to branch out further.
Last year, the club regularly led workshops in elementary schools, which Filatov said he hoped made 3D printing more accessible to unlikely groups.
“We’ve been trying to expand our network and just be able to bring learning opportunities to [students] that don’t have the opportunity to learn 3D printing [or] don’t have the opportunity to get really good access to STEM,” Filatov said. “We feel that it’s important to provide that access.”
After a year of elementary-school workshops, the club began reaching out to other Westview organizations in an effort to connect with more of the student body.
“It’s good to get a lot of other diverse [groups] to understand 3D printing,” Chang said. “It’s good to get out, allow other people to see that we have this technology and it’s available for public use.”
3D Printing Club vice president Elizabeth Weng (11) said that this technology can be utilized across many clubs.
“[Collaborating with other clubs] shows how versatile 3D printing is,” Weng said. “It can really be applied to anything because you can make almost anything you think of with 3D printing, so we really wanted to share that with other clubs on campus.”
Additionally, the two clubs wanted to broaden their capabilities by interacting with new groups.
“I think collaboration is important for different clubs,” Filatov said. “Not only does it expand your horizons in terms of what’s possible for your club, because you get access to a new skillset, but also it just brings a big diversity in opinion.”
The Best Buddies executive team is also familiar with partnerships, having worked with clubs like ASL, robotics, and more in the past. Now moving into fall, they are placing a heavier emphasis on collaboration.
“I think it’s important to see all these different perspectives and integrate them in our club,” Schwartz said. “We always have a big range [of activities], especially [since] it’s mixed into what season we’re in, so now that we’re going towards more fall- and Halloween-[time], we’re going to do more holiday-related things. Normally we’re not a club that will reach out to others, but it’s so fun when we get to.”
Schwartz said that both the experience and the keepsakes they got to take home made the collaboration one to remember.
“I just think it’s important to see all these different perspectives and how we can integrate them into our own club,” Schwartz said. “I think a lot of the buddies and the people who went all really enjoyed it because it taught them something new that we could use in the future, and [we made] something they could keep, the pumpkin. It’s a memory of learning something new that they could tell people about because it was really cool.”
