Tinkering fun with electrical bling and 3D printers!

Thu 17 December

Here at At-Bristol Science Centre, we’re busy researching, developing and preparing for a brand new exhibition ‘The Tinkering Space’, which will open to visitors in summer 2016. It’ll be a space to cultivate the experimental mind, and inspire the next generation of technical innovators by tinkering, making and creating all sorts of things – including robots, and of course 3D printing!

As part of the protyping of activities and exhibits, we were able test out some of these activities during our busy October half term holiday, when over 14,500  visitors poured into the venue. Among eye ball dissections, sushi making and space shows, our pop-up Tinkering Lounge created some committed makers soldering Electrical Bling (light up badges) and creating Scribble Bots, taking home their very own robot-created experimental artwork.

Thanks to the lovely folks at Create Education this additional space also featured an Ultimaker 3D printer. Complete with its white glow and space-age robotic sounds, a constant flow of adults and children were drawn to investigate what it was all about. There was a box of previously printed objects such as maracas and tools to hold and study as they explored the potential of this technology. A partial print of a ratchet wrench showed how moving mechanical parts can be embedded inside a single print object and then used in space.

One of the most popular prints was a full-scale model of a dinosaur brain. One of the most fascinating uses of the 3D printer is for making objects that are not available for us to see or hold any other way. In this case, a team of paleontologists led by Dr Stephan Lautenschlager at the University of Bristol scanned a fossil skull from a theropod dinosaur (Erlikosaurus andrewsi). And then used this to build a 3D computer generated image of what this dinosaur’s brain would have looked like. Printing this data provides a unique opportunity to physically explore the brain of an animal that last walked the Earth more than 90 million years ago!

The photo below shows a full-scale 3D print of the brain of Erlikosaurus andrewsi – a dinosaur that went extinct during the Cretaceous Period. Printed courtesy of Dr Stephan Lautenschlager, University of Bristol - you can find out more about his work here.

 

 

Part of our remit as an educational charity is to make science accessible to all, and by showcasing what new technology like a 3D printer can do, we were certainly able to go some towards educating and inspiring our visitors – it’s not every day that you get to hold a dinosaur brain, or a tool that was printed and used in space!

Visitors to At-Bristol will be able to see more making and 3D printing  when the brand new exhibition arrives here in the summer 2016, so keep your eyes out for more news and updates on the Tinkering Space!