Volcanic eruption brought to life for students

Jan. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Pupils at Clevedon School in North Somerset can now see with their own eyes the dramatic effects of a volcanic eruption on the landscape.

Using a revolutionary state of the art 3D printer, students produced before-and-after models of Mount St Helen’s volcano that erupted in Washington State in 1980.

The printer, known as the RapMan, was donated to the school by Clevedon-based Bits from Bytes to help test the machine and provide feedback.

“RapMan allows pupils to simply 'print' plastic objects,” said the school’s head of design and technology and advanced skills teacher Dave White.

“Instead of using just words and pictures students can now create a three-dimensional object they can see and touch.

“We used free downloadable computer data from NASA and from satellites to give us contour lines of Mount St Helen’s to feed into the printer.

“We were able to show how the volcano site and the surrounding landscape dramatically changed within moments of the eruption.

“The explosion trimmed about 400 meters off the summit, left a 1.5 kilometre–wide amphitheatre-shaped crater and created the largest landslide ever recorded.”

Mr White said the construction of the model was a cross curricular project including geography and design and technology students.

“The 3D terrain printing has helped provide students with the opportunities to apply their subject and reasoning skills in practical and relevant ways.”

A 3D printer works by taking a 3D computer file and using and making a series of cross-sectional slices.

Each slice is then printed one on top of the other to create the 3D object made out of a biodegradable polymer.

Specialist 3D machines usually cost around £15,000 but the RapMan costs less than £1000 making it within reach of school budgets.

The RapMan recently won the BETT Award for Best Digital Device at the 2010 BETT show – the world's largest technology education event.

“Much of the machine is made of transparent plastic allowing students to observe and understand the manufacturing process from start to finish,” said Iain Major, Bits from Bytes operations and IT director.

"We have worked very hard to ensure the RapMan meets the needs of teachers delivering the national curriculum. This element of learning will ensure tomorrow’s designers and manufacturers will not get left behind.”

Technical details about the RapMan can be found on the Bits from Bytes website www.bitsfrombytes.com.