While continuing to teach students from his Eureka home and also helping to care for his newborn daughter, Eureka High teacher Brad DeMattei is using a Rockwood School District 3D printer to make visors that hold transparent face shields for local health care workers.
Turns out, DeMattei is one of many Rockwood teachers doing what they can to help out during the COVID-19 crisis.
David Morrison, Rockwood communications coordinator, said Tuesday that Rockwood teachers had printed 348 visors.
The teachers have teamed up with a community group called Face Shield Initiative STL, which provides the file for the 3D printing job, collects the finished parts and then distributes them to area health care workers.
Rockwood Superintendent Mark Miles said community members had reached out to him to see how the school district could help during the crisis. Staff members came up with the idea to print parts for face shields.
Bob Deneau, Rockwood director of technical support services, said about 20 3D printers have been distributed to teachers’ homes.
DeMattei said it takes about two and a half to three hours to print one part, and he has been able to make about four to six a day.
“Right now, with a newborn waking up at 3 a.m. and feeding her, I run downstairs to print – I’m getting a couple of more in,” he said.
DeMattei said his infant daughter isn’t the only one playing a role.
“It’s really turned into a family affair because we have a 22-month-old who likes to come in and watch the printer run,” he said. “He likes the lights and the sounds and the movement. He lets us know that it’s done.
“(The printer) makes a noise and then you can hear the plate lowering. He’ll come running into the living room and say, ‘Done, done, done.’”
DeMattei, who also is the boys cross country and track and field coach at Eureka High School, said the printer is set up in his office on a card table.
He said Eureka High School has three 3D printers. He now has one and so does another teacher. The third printer is not being used because the material it prints is not recommended for this project.
DeMattei said he has been teaching at Eureka for 12 years. His class load includes pre-engineering, Project Lead the Way and traditional shop classes, including woodworking and drafting.
He said his curriculum was already online, so getting assignments to students has been easy.
“So, being able to find assignments and material isn’t really new,” he said. “It’s just trying to create assignments and projects that they can do with household items, versus the standard assignments and projects that we’ve done in school.”
He said normally the printers would be used to print classwork.
“At this time of year, it would be (students) printing parts (for) 3D models, which is part of our intro-to-engineering course,” he said.
DeMattei said the printer also would be used to print parts for the robotics teams.
He said it feels good to help out even in a small way.
LaSalle Springs Middle technology teacher Cheryl Rock with 3D printers running at her home.
LaSalle Springs Middle technology teacher Cheryl Rock has three printers running in her home.
She said the project does not take much of her time.
“It takes about two minutes to get a print started and then you just let it go for two and a half hours,” Rock said.
Marquette High School teacher Zack Avila said he “jumped” at the chance to be involved.
“It is something that you feel kind of more connected to the outside world, since we’re all being isolated and sequestered in our own homes,” he said. “It’s nice to feel like you can make that connection with people outside of your immediate family group.”
He said he has one printer in his home.
Rockwood staff members are using settings certified by the National Institutes of Health. Staff members are also following sanitation guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes bagging each part.
Rockwood also has been donating protective eyewear. Marquette, one of four Rockwood high schools, donated 220 pairs of eyewear to Barnes Jewish Hospital emergency health care workers.
