Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Nothing like a healthy challenge to get the wheels of outreach moving.
The Dysart Unified School District superintendent April 8 challenged the Peoria Unified School District to use their 3D printers to make 1,000 ear guards in a week for face masks for essential workers.
Wearing face masks for an extended period of time can cause ear sensitivity because the straps rub them throughout the day, so ear guards keep the straps off the ears.
MET Professional Academy Director Barbara Coakley said to date PUSD teachers have produced 5,400 ear guards and have distributed at least 3,800 to many Valley businesses including 700 delivered to the Glendale Fire Department and 600 delivered to Banner Thunderbird Hospital.
The MET Academy is for students interested in the fields surrounding Medical, Engineering, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Bioscience.
Justin Davis, the engineering and technology teacher at MET, took the academy’s 3D printers home and set up shop in his garage. He then reached out to the other engineering teachers at PUSD high school campuses and 7th/8th grade Technology, Life & Careers teachers, or TLC teachers, who have 3D printers, and coordinated production efforts.
In total, 17 3D printers were used for the project by district teachers.
Mr. Davis also worked on a lesson to incorporate this 3D design into his online engineering course.
Ms. Coakley reached out to the district’s business partners and posted information on its Facebook page to distribute the ear guards to those who needed them.
It has truly been a community effort, she said.
“We have business partners that have paid for the postage to deliver them to Arizona nurses working in New York City and that offered to donate the plastic materials,” she said. “The MET Professional Academy, in addition to focusing on STEM based curriculum, strongly supports students giving back to the community, so it was nice to be able to practice what we preach.”
Philip Haldiman can be reached at 623-876-3697, phaldiman@newszap.com, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.
Philip Haldiman is a third generation Arizona native with brief residencies on the east and west coasts.
He has bachelor’s degrees in Theater and Journalism at Arizona State University, and is an award winning journalist with more than 15 years worth of experience in reporting and editing.
Most recently, he took first place for investigative reporting and third place for best sustained coverage or series at the 2023 Arizona Newspapers Association awards.
In his free time, he produces an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
By 
