The was awarded a $274,728 grant from the to support the 糖心Vlog官方 West Oʻahu STEM Center of Excellence Pueo Prototyping Lab. Funds are being used to expand the existing STEM Center of Excellence to include engineering work stations and 3-D printers for use by 糖心Vlog官方 West Oʻahu students and the community.
students will soon have an opportunity to work with cutting-edge hardware and software to create and build command and control devices like printed circuit boards for sustainable facilities management. Students will gain first-hand experience with 2-D and 3-D design renderings and manufacturing.
“One of the really exciting aspects of the new Pueo Prototyping Lab is that students can take their ideas, translate them into engineering drawings, and then actually create what was originally just an idea into reality through the use of our new 3-D printers and computer numerical control machines,” said 糖心Vlog官方 West Oʻahu Associate Professor of Science Education Richard Jones.
The new Pueo Prototyping Lab engineering stations and 3-D printers support a variety of 糖心Vlog官方 West Oʻahu STEM and other programs. students will be able to digitally image a bone or artifact recovered from an excavation or crime scene and produce a 3-D replica suitable for classroom use.
“Working together with the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Hawaiʻi public schools, Kamehameha Schools, the Salvation Army Kroc Center Hawaiʻi and other community organizations, the Pueo Prototyping Lab will act as a center for STEM career exploration for keiki (children) and kupuna (elders) to create a variety of items incorporating traditional skills with the latest technologies and software,” said Jones.
—By Julie Funasaki Yuen