Roanoke Catholic students bring ornaments to life on 3D printer

Math teacher transforms Intro to Engineering class into Santa's Workshop

ROANOKE, Va. – Local students turned into Santa's elves.

A Roanoke Catholic math teacher transformed her Intro to Engineering class into Santa's Workshop.

The student elves designed Christmas ornaments on the computer and then brought them to life on a 3D printer. 

"I hope those kids who may not know that they have a proficiency and technology get a chance to explore that and I think anytime that you combine technology with creativity it attracts a lot more students than simply technology by itself," said Donna Nickels, Roanoke Catholic math teacher.

"I've been thinking about becoming a physician's assistant but this class has actually encouraged me to go into the biomedical engineering field because I've never studied engineering this year it's turned me into it's really interesting and I really like this field," said Lauren Anderson, a Roanoke Catholic senior.

The students also made Christmas trees and gingerbread men.

This started as a club after school and it snowballed into a class.


About the Author:

You can see Jenna weekday mornings at the anchor desk on WSLS 10 Today from 5-7 a.m. She also leads our monthly Solutionaries Series, where we highlight the creative thinkers and doers working to make the world a better place.