MakerBot Announces Winners in School #WeNeedaMakerBot Giveaway

Nancy Elementary School’s prize-winning post featured students using a MakerBot

As the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) curriculum continues to be a major focus for teachers, education administrators, and education companies, we see more and more schools seeking opportunities to incorporate 3D printing into their curriculum as well. MakerBot is trying to do its share here, and it has just announced the winners in its #WeNeedaMakerBot Giveaway.

The competition, which asked schools to simply state why they needed a refurbished MakerBot 3D printer, rewarded the schools with the posts that were the most shared, retweeted, and liked. The lucky schools have been announced, and their hard-earned refurbished MakerBot 3D printers are on the way.

Who are the lucky winners? First we have Nancy Elementary School in Nancy, Kentucky. The original Facebook post highlighted that the school now has a STEM Lab and they are “anxiously learning new concepts through hands-on experiences daily. One of the items we have been raising money for is a 3D printer, though our fundraising fell short.” The school may have fallen short of its own fundraising efforts, but it did not fall short of the drive and desire to win a MakerBot Replicator!

Another winner is Sierra Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico. Kathleen Arias, a Science teacher there, explained in a post that a 3D printer would aid the students in their hands-on learning:

“Hands-on instruction is the best way to support active, engaged learning in the classroom; with a Makerbot printer students will be able to create canisters for their payloads while supplying a plethora of scientific and mathematical stimulus that will keep students inspired during the learning process.”

The third lucky school to win the MakerBot Giveaway is the Apex School in Apex, North Carolina. This school’s competition post was offered by a Fine Arts teacher, Ian Sands, who emphasized that a MakerBot is the exact machine the school needs to complete its vision of a “classroom as a laboratory that has everything you need to build anything you can imagine. All you need to do is bring an idea and we have the technology to bring it to fruition.” Well, the students at Apex are that much closer to this vision now that MakerBot is hooking them up with a 3D printer they can use to try out all of their big ideas on.

Valley Christian School students

The final school to win a MakerBot Replicator this time around is Valley Christian in Cerritos, California. This school wants the printer to support its STEAM subjects, and the school’s HS and MS robotics teams could also benefit from having a 3D printer around. And now they will thanks to MakerBot’s generous giveaway that ensures more young people get first-hand exposure to the latest 3D printing technology.  Discuss the winners in the #WeNeedAMakerbot Giveaway forum thread on 3DPB.com.