BCS Makes Face Shields for Medical Staff

BCS Administrative Assistant Laurel Bates assembles a face shield at a table in the Innovation Lab at Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. Discovery Academy on Thursday.

By Tim Reaves
BCS Communications Department

A whirring chorus – a peculiar song of hope – drifts out of one classroom in a mostly quiet Nesbitt Discovery Academy (NDA).

While much of the high school sits dark and empty, the aptly-named Innovation Lab buzzes with activity. Inside, 11 3D printers hum away as they churn out frames for protective face shields. BCS staff members monitor the progress and incorporate the custom-printed plastic pieces into finished products. They attach sheets of clear plastic material, glue the 3D-printed frames in place, add foam barriers on top of the frames, and seal the seams with electrical tape. The Innovation Lab, where students learn how to creatively solve problems, has become a manufacturing facility for life-saving medical equipment. As of Friday, BCS had 50 3D printers spread across three rooms at NDA. The protective shields will be donated to the Buncombe County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which will distribute them where they can do the most good.

“I think this is the most appropriate situation you could have in an emergency like this, to be in an Innovation Lab at a school, utilizing what we’re teaching the kids to actually put that into play at the front lines,” said BCS Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director Taylor Baldwin. “We’re thinking outside the box and stepping up.”

It started in early March when Mr. Baldwin spoke to his mother, a former nurse, about mask shortages in areas hit hard by the novel coronavirus.

“She told me that the real problem was a lack of face shields,” he said. “I thought about all the 3D printers we have and decided that maybe we can help.”

At the same time, Glen Arden Elementary School Media Specialist Lee Ann Smith heard about the shortages from a doctor friend. She saw her school’s 3D printer as a possible solution.

“I heard from the district folks that they already had something rolling, so I decided to help spearhead it,” she said.

She and Administrative Assistant Laurel Bates assembled the face shields at a table in the Innovation Lab on Thursday. Their goal is to create 100 face shields per week. Asheville City Schools also has joined the effort.

“I know it’s a drop in the bucket, but those drops eventually fill up the bucket,” Ms. Smith said. “A lot of little drops will make a difference.”

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

Thanks to investments in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and project-based learning, each BCS school has at least one 3D printer. Ms. Smith brought Glen Arden’s 3D printer to Nesbitt, and BCS staff brought several others from schools around the district. Mr. Baldwin combined those with other 3D printers he already had at the Central Office to turn classrooms into manufacturing bays.

As soon as it became clear that BCS had both the equipment and the materials to do the job, Mr. Baldwin designed a prototype in Autodesk Inventor and took it to the EOC. The original design took about six hours to complete. The newest iteration takes barely more than two.

“This one is a whole lot quicker,” he said. “And we’re still improving it based on feedback from Emergency Management.”

“What this shows is that there are real-life applications to what we learn in school,” Ms. Smith said. “It’s not only for teaching and education purposes, but it can save people’s lives.”

All BCS elementary and intermediate schools have STEM Labs and Maker Spaces, where students learn to apply classroom lessons to real-world problems using the Engineering-Design Process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve).

BCS Career and Technical Education Director Taylor Baldwin works on a face shield design in Autodesk Inventor.

“These face shields followed that process,” Mr. Baldwin said. “I made a prototype, took it to the EOC, and needed to try six different times before the product was ready. It doesn’t get much more ‘real-life’ than that. And I’m not even an engineer. I’m using Autodesk Inventor, the same software our students use. I hope the kids can see the power of technology combined with autonomy and innovative thinking.”

Many BCS schools also follow the Leader in Me model, which teaches children to be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and work together to solve problems.

“This is a war-time effort that brings together a nation, the most significant event since 9/11, before most of our students were even born,” said BCS Assistant Superintendent Joseph Hough. “This is the practical application as communities come together during a national crisis. Here locally, that’s been county government, emergency management, the medical community, schools, and various other partners. We have had even dentist offices and other organizations reach out to us asking to help. It has been a pleasure working with so many people that have a ‘we can do this’ attitude throughout the process. We are waking up as a community and realizing we’re stronger together. And when the children see us stepping up, they’ll see a model for how they can step up when they see a need.”

WANT TO HELP?

BCS is looking to share what we’ve learned with industry partners who can expand production capacity. If your company is interested, please reach out to Mr. Hough.

For more information about how Buncombe County Schools is responding to the COVID-19 crisis, including where to receive free meals, please visit response.buncombeschools.org.

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This timelapse, courtesy of Ms. Smith, shows a 3D printer in action. WLOS ABC News 13 also covered this story.

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