Mobile Fablab

Mobile Fablab in Tampere University

Mobile Fablab project started in our university in 2018. Now we have machines and a car purchased but what is yet to do is to plan the digital fabrication workshops that support learning process.

Here is represented our Mobile Fablab machines and car:

I worked on Mobile Fablab project in summer 2018 doing some investigation considering what kind of concept this could be in general; what kind of machines it has and how we can link Mobile Fablab workshops with school curriculum. In summer 2019 I proceeded working in Fablab focusing on Mobile Fablab and have been working there ever since. My job has mainly been testing our Mobile Fablab devices and figuring out what kind materials to use with them. We’ve had some smaller scale workshops in local schools and happenings where we have tested our machines’ reliability and capacity.

Master’s thesis

The workshop I planned for my master’s thesis is called aspirin workshop and it was tested with 9th grade students in local schools. Students use EDUMOL molecular modeling website to model molecules throughout the organic chemistry course. This way students are able to use the website smoothly on the 3D-printing workshop day.

When testing the workshop we started the day by modeling aspirin, exporting a stl-file from the website, slicing the stl-file and 3D-printing the molecule.

Aspirin molecule modeled with EDUMOL:

Modeled aspirin molecule in Cura:

Our 3D-printers (Monoprice Mini Delta):

During the 3D-printing students worked in groups of three with each group having their own aspirin related topic (history, chemistry, professions etc.). After creating a presentation of group’s topic students identified and coloured different atoms of the printed molecule using permanent markers.

Students coloring the molecule:

Next students identified functional groups of aspirin, calculated molecular formula and draw structural formula on paper using the printed molecule as reference. After this we discussed about different levels of understanding chemistry: the macroscopic level, which deals the sensory/visible phenomena (aspirin pill), the submicroscopic level, which deals with particles (printed molecule) and the symbolic level, which represents the matterin terms of chemical formulae and equations (molecular formula and drawn structural formula). Finally, students represented the presentation about their aspirin related topic.