3D-printer company Makerbot is leading a crowdfunding drive to buy 3D printers for every school in America. The push, called Makerbot Academy, will begin with CEO Bre Pettis personally pledging a Makerbot to every public high school in the company’s home town of Brooklyn.
“MakerBot Academy is a big thing. It is epic. There are around 100,000 schools in the USA and we want those students to be ready for the future,” Pettis wrote.
You can donate at the DonorsChoose.org page. “As a former teacher, I believe strongly in creating a new model for innovation. A MakerBot is a manufacturing education in a box,” wrote Pettis in a blog post. “We need to encourage our teachers and our youth to think differently about manufacturing and innovation.”
Makerbot is working with America Makes, part of the The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute that is “kickstarting” the 3D printing industry in the U.S.
Teachers can request printers here and designers interested in building educational models can register their designs on Thingiverse.