A Dumfries design and technology teacher is helping protect lives through the Covid-19 pandemic – with a little help from his two young sons.
Adam MacKellar, who is also acting principal teacher of religious education at St Joseph’s College, took home the school’s 3D printers to see if he could create much-needed visors for key workers.
With some help and resources from Dalbeattie High School, he has been creating the protection equipment for care homes in the region during lockdown.
And he has enlisted his sons, six-year-old Noah, and Murray, aged two, as helpers when they are not being home-schooled and he is not providing his students with digital schoolwork.
He said: “The technical teachers network has been overloaded with requests for 3D printed visors. The demand is high and the need to protect our NHS workers is more important than ever for the sake of all of us. They are doing such a great job.
“I felt I could do my bit by using my skills and technical know-how like many others across Scotland.
“I am able to up production should I need to with the aid of my two helpers, Noah and Murray.”
Adam said he has transformed the spare room of their home into a classroom and maker lab and joked: “It, at times, is the busiest, noisiest classroom I’ve ever had, although my pupils don’t normally want to watch Peppa Pig.
“Having the printers at home offers its own difficulties in that my two small people – Noah doing his learning at home, and Murray trying to get in among all of the action – provides a very different learning platform for them than they would have been having under normal circumstances.
“My wife has been a great support in taking main responsibility for Noah and the main part of his learning, while we do this. Team effort, you see.”
Adam had to persevere to get the 3D printing perfect.
He added: “There are a number of design and technology departments in schools across the region making use of their school equipment to produce visors and ear protectors and they are doing so using laser cutters by the hundreds.
“3D printing, however, is a bit more time consuming but, through rigorous product designing, it is possible to come up with an efficient design that gets the print time down to under an hour.”
Adam has been bowled over by the way teachers across the region are coping with a variety of demands in meeting the pandemic head on since were schools closed as part of the lockdown measures.
He said: “I’ve never seen community spirit like it. A school and its wider community often works in partnership and indeed all of us are doing our bit by staying in and sticking to the government advice given.
“Our schools are still open, in a sense, with teachers providing ‘work from home’ for pupils to complete at home and others are supporting families in many ways like preparing and delivering lunches and our pupil support department is working hard supporting our families and ensuring they have what they need.
“There is a real community spirit among all of us in all schools supporting each other. We are in this together and we will get through this together.”
