For 8 years, Paul Allen had been pining after a laser cutter
to use in his engineering classes at Decatur High School. But after his 39
years of teaching, Allen knew better than to assume that he would ever round up
$38,000 to spare on buying one.
Then while doing research, Allen heard of a company called
Boss Laser in Sanford, Florida which offered a laser cutter three times more
powerful than he had been expecting, but also small enough to fit in a
classroom door. Also, it was only $20,000.
But even though everything seemed perfect, $20,000 was still
a lot of money to drum up.
That’s where 3M came in.
In September 2016, 3M representative Lendon Haggard met with
the Decatur City Schools Foundation to discuss career tech needs, and together
they decided to meet the need of $19,995, the exact amount needed to buy a
laser cutter for Allen’s classroom.
Haggard says, “Since a lot of employees (at 3M) are hired
from surrounding communities, it’s critical that 3M support college and career
readiness and STEM programs in local schools system.”
Using the generosity of 3M, Allen quickly purchased the
laser cutter, and when it arrived in December, 2016, LiftOne donated the
service of a forklift to unload the 1600-pound crate.
The
laser cutter is currently housed at Decatur High School, but it is used by both
high schools, and will be moved to the Austin campus for the joint career tech
program in 2018.
With the machine finally in place, Allen and a few students
received a full day of training from a Boss Laser representative, and then they
were ready to start using it in their engineering, design, and machining
classes.
The first project for the massive, shiny, new machine was to
design a motor base mounting system for an electric car. Allen’s class was
scheduled to compete in an Electrathon race of endurance that year, and needed
to start by building the parts.
Until the laser cutter came onto the scene, Allen’s class
had always outsourced even their prototypes, a process which slowed them down
considerably. The laser cutter revolutionized their time schedule. Knowing that
time was crucial in a competition setting, Allen taught his class to convert
drawings into wooden prototypes using the laser cutter. Suddenly a process that
would have originally taken weeks was whittled down to completion within a
single class period.
All that extra time left November through April free to
practice, tweak, and adjust the car in preparation for the race. They had
months to improve their accuracy.
And it’s no surprise that they won. First place, in fact. “100%
accuracy is key, so we practice our butts off, and we end up winning,” Allen
says.
In addition to creating winning racecars, Allen’s class uses
the laser cutter for other projects like cutting jigs to assemble bridge
structures capable of holding up to 300 pounds of pressure. Such bridges have
been entered into structural engineering contests and have taken 1st,
2nd, and 3rd places. The class uses the laser cutter for
making thank-you plaques for donors who contribute to their classroom, and Allen
even laser cuts wooden diplomas for those who pass all four engineering classes
offered at Decatur High School.
Thanks to 3M and the Decatur City Schools Foundation,
Allen’s class took home their 31st State Championship this year, and
they couldn’t be more proud. “It’s a pride thing for us,” Allen says. “We want
to be the best-dressed, most-feared team out there.”
So by the end of the race, the national competition, the
international competition—whatever the accuracy of a laser cutter helps them
achieve—Allen’s students are proud of what they’ve created because they know it
is the best they can do. “And I’m proud, too,” Allen says. “Just a little.”
It’s not just a car they helped go faster, a bridge they
made stronger, or a team they made prouder. Through their generosity, the
Foundation and 3M helped students prepare for the real world after high school.
When Allen’s students walk into their first engineering
classes at college, they already know how to work some of the machines (like
the laser cutter), so they minimize the learning curve in college.
“That’s what
I want,” Allen says. “I want my students to leave Decatur City Schools one up
on everybody else.”
And by the sounds of it, 3M might have given Allen’s class
two or three up on everybody else.
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