The Aquilian November 2018 Volume 81, Number 2
Gonzaga College High School Men For Others Since 1821
19 Eye St, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Make a Space! for Makerspace On the bottom floor of Cantwell-Ruesch, just to the right of the network operations center, there is a room that, although usually empty, contains a myriad of technological tools, available to all students to use. Mr. Jonathan Spencer, who has been the driving force in the creation of this room since his arrival in 2017, can generally be found at his desk inside, and all that is needed to start using anything is his permission. The best technology
Gonzaga has to offer is available to you right now. All you have to do is enter the Makerspace. What is a Makerspace? Simply put, it is a space for someone to create anything and everything they would like. The Gonzaga Makerspace, located in room 107, helps students do just that. First on the list is a Glowforge, something that is just as futuristic as it sounds. A type of 3D printer, the Glowforge uses lasers to cut into materials like wood, acrylic, and fabric to make intricate designs specified by the user.
The next item in the Makerspace, the Carvey, is quite similar to the Glowforge, except it uses a physical tool to carve designs into almost any material. There are also two traditional 3D printers, the Ultimaker 2+ and the Ultimaker S5, which build 3D designs out of a material, generally plastic, layer by layer. In addition to 3D printing, there are several tools for coding and microcomputing. Available to students are the Arduino, the Raspberry Pi, and the Sphero. The Arduino is a circuit board that
completes simple tasks it is instructed to do by a specific type of code written in the Arduino development environment. Although seemingly very complex, using an Arduino is incredibly simple, and almost no prior technological knowledge is necessary to begin working. The Raspberry Pi is slightly more advanced than an Arduino, but just as easy to use. It is microcomputer that runs a custom version of a Linux operating system, and can be used to complete more complex tasks that may require more than one series of
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By: Adam Wojciak ‘20 Editor
commands to be run. Unlike the Arduino, the Raspberry Pi can run several different types of code, including Java and Python. The Sphero, relatively new compared to the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, is a microcomputer enclosed in a sphere that can be used to create different types of small robots. With an extremely simple interface for coding, the Sphero is an extremely versatile tool that is easy to learn. The Makerspace also has several tools for students to work in virtual, augmented, Continued on p. 2