13-Year-Old Riley Lewis and His Crew Embrace 3-D Printing at Public School
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We always love hearing from passionate, scientific-minded kids, and 13-year-old Riley Lewis, a burgeoning 3-D printer expert (and PopSci reader!) is certainly that. Riley showed interest in fabrication and Maker culture, so Deelip and 3D Systems hooked him up with a RapMan 3.1 3-D printer kit that he’s set up at his Silicon Valley school–and Riley in turn has hooked his classmates into discovering the potential of 3-D printing with him.

Deelip has a great blog showing Riley and his “Herd’s” progress with the 3-D printer, figuring out how to use and adjust the device in order to print all kinds of items out of plastic, from cups and forks to sculptures, and in the latest installment, arrows. The kit itself is pretty small and inexpensive, costing a mere $700 or so to set up at Discovery Charter School, a public middle school that might otherwise not be able to afford a 3-D fabricator. It’s really inspiring stuff, and makes us a bit jealous–none of us here had 3-D printers at our schools!

Check out the first installment of this amazing “what I did this summer” account here. Maybe someday we’ll be writing about Riley’s achievements in features like this one.