MakerBot Industries

We received  more than 100 entries into the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway. Now we’ve got to go through them and evaluate them and choose 10. It’s going to be tough, I looked through them briefly and there are a lot of good ones. We’ll be publishing a lot of the lesson plans so you’ll be able to imagine what teachers are doing with their students and MakerBots! Thanks to everyone who submitted!

Today is the last day to submit for the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway. If you’re submitting, make sure you’ve included a lesson plan!

With the advent of the new Plastruder MK5, we have a lot of MK4 parts here at the botcave. We’ve decided to take 50% off the MK4 Plastruder to make room for the MK5 parts.

We’ve also got lots of lasercut parts for the MK4 and we’ve dropped those down to $29 which is more than 50% off!

If you’ve wanted an extra extruder or a backup extruder or frankly, if you just need spare parts, here’s your chance to get an extruder for cheap. At this point, if you need spare parts for your MK4, you might as well buy a whole new extruder!

We are looking for a blogger at MakerBot who has the chops to write fantastic blog posts about the latest and greatest in the personal manufacturing space, be able to write up project documentation, and create and document great projects with the latest MakerBot gear. It wouldn’t hurt to be obsessed with MakerBot already, but what we really care about is that you have writing skills and can write with wit, keep things concise, have a personal voice and have some tinkering skills. Professional experience isn’t necessary (though it doesn’t hurt), what we really care about is that you can write! If you’ve got experience taking great photos and editing up video, that’s a bonus! We’re looking for a blogger in the New York City area because we actually want you here writing about things that are happening at the Botcave in Brooklyn!

Here’s what the gig is:

• Writing for the MakerBot blog. A mix of original writing, posts that spotlight the awesomeness of the MakerBot community, and posts that track the latest developments on Thingiverse and in the world of personal manufacturing.
• Writing copy for MakerBot product launches on the MakerBot Wiki and in the MakerBot store.
• Building new MakerBot products, creating projects with those products, and documenting the process.

Sound good? Here’s what you need to send in to apply:

2 writing samples of blog posts written by you.
These sample posts can be about whatever you want that somehow relates to personal manufacturing or MakerBot in your own words. We love robots, but don’t want you to sound like you are one. We won’t be using these on the site, we just want to get a sense of how well you can write.

Tell us your favorite thing on Thingiverse.com and why.

Photo and Video: If you have experience with video and photography, send us a link to your work on the internet.

Tell us about You

• A few words about yourself. (Sorry, but due to legalities, we can’t hire minors.)
• Give us a few words about what gets you excited about writing for MakerBot.
• Your contact info
• How much time you have per week to commit to the gig. If it’s less than 20 hours, then you probably shouldn’t bother. Be realistic, okay?
• Any questions you might have about the job.

What not to do: Don’t just send us attachments or resumes. Also, reminder, we are accepting applicants who live in or around the NYC area.

If this all sounds awesome, email your information to blogger@makerbot.com.

Hey Teachers!

There is still a week to submit your email for the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway! The deadline for sending in your email is August 23rd!

As part of the submission process, we’re asking teachers to submit lesson plans so that we can start thinking in clear, structured ways about how a MakerBot could be effective in a classroom. Some submitted lesson plans don’t have enough information and detail so here is some information about lesson plans so that you can be sure that there will be enough information in your lesson plan for us to evaluate it.

There are lots ways to write a lesson plan, but most have the following components:

• Objectives: What do you expect the students to learn?
• Structured Lead In: How will you engage the students and connect the new learning to their life?
• Instructions: What are you going to teach? How are you going to do it?
• Independant Practice: What will you have the students do to demonstrate their new learning?
• Evaluation: How will students know if they have learned what you’ve taught them?

These are not rules set in stone. Every teacher has their own way of creating lesson plans to scaffold student learning. We won’t be evaluating you based on the structure of your lesson plans but on clarity, innovation, and curriculum integration shown in your lesson plan! We are excited to see how you are thinking about integrating a MakerBot into your curriculum and want as much detail as possible for the benefit of teachers everywhere who will follow in your footsteps to bringing the power of personal manufacturing into the classroom! If you have already submitted, but want to send another email with more details in your lesson plan, please do! The email to send in your submissions is learning@makerbot.com.

Are you a teacher that could use a MakerBot? It’s almost time to go back to school and so we’re giving 10 teachers each a MakerBot Cupcake CNC Deluxe Kit with standard MK4 Extruder and a bonus Heated Build Platform kit.

Before August 23rd send an email to learning@makerbot.com with the following info. We may publish the ideas/lesson plans on the blog or wiki after the contest ends.

• Your name
• Your school’s name
• The address you’d like the MakerBot sent to if you are chosen
• A paragraph describing how you would integrate the MakerBot into your curriculum. Include some description of the learning environment and what you teach
• A lesson plan that you will implement if you get a MakerBot

Both me, Bre Pettis, (a former art teacher in Seattle Public Schools) and Charles Pax (a former Newark New Jersey physics teacher) will evaluate the information submitted and our criteria for the giveaway will be clarity, innovation, and curriculum integration.

Teachers who get a MakerBot will be expected to join the MakerBot Educators Google Group and document their experience with the MakerBot so that the other teachers can be inspired!

If you are not a teacher, but know a teacher who would benefit from having a MakerBot, please pass this along to them!

Our goal is to get more MakerBots into teachers hands and give them creative tools that will inspire young people to use their imagination and creativity. If you questions about the contest, leave a comment!

Update: Do not be fooled by the photo above of young children. Any teacher at any level is encouraged to apply.

The botswarm is expanding. We’re looking to hire on a new person for our team, and this time we’re looking for someone to help us on the virtual side of things. Besides making Thingiverse an awesome place for the 3D printing community, there is a lot of backend software needed to run a hardware company. We’re looking for a talented and brave soul to help us continue rocking the free by democratizing manufacturing.

Is this you? Is this someone you know? If so, check out our job posting for the job requirements.

Dutch Angles work for screenshots, too

ReplicatorG 0018 is now available for download!  This release is predicated on the firm belief that no one should have to learn to use Blender just to scale an object.  ReplicatorG now includes basic object manipulation functions, like scaling, rotation, placement, and mirroring.  See our documentation for a quick introduction to the new features!

We could say more, but really, there’s no reason not just to get it from the ReplicatorG download page.  Go!  Get it now!

As always, there’s also a number of minor improvements and bug fixes, like a smarter launcher for Windows.  See the full list below.

continue reading »

The MakerBot Relay Board Kit v1.0

In response to the growing power-needs of the CupCake CNC community, we have released the MakerBot Relay Board Kit v1.0. This kit allows you to use relays for power control. This super-easy-to-build kit is two mechanical relays that allow a 12v ATX power supply to run power to anything. We’ve been using it to power the Heated Build Platform!  We have had some cases where the HBP’s power draw causes the MOSFETS of the Extruder Controller to burn out- this fixes that issue, and gives you lots more power to spare!  Basically with this baby attached, you could power your HBP, and a Christmas tree of LED’s or a giant 12v motor, practically anything that needs 12 volts of juice!

We’ve been joking around with what to call it, because it clicks when the power is on, -rather satisfying feedback-  but all the names we came up with were awful, so we stuck with the Relay Board.

http://store.makerbot.com/electronics/electronics-kits/relay-board-kit-v1-0.html

Kent and Lucas Weakley stopped by our booth at Maker Faire and shot some video. MakerBot made it into their great video!