Madagascar Is Home To The World's Second 3D Printed School!
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
The beautiful island country of Madagascar has a dire school shortage. About a third of Malagasy children have no access to education because the schools are too far away or severely overcrowded. Thinking Huts, a non-profit dedicated to increasing global access to education, believes that 22,000 new schools are needed to fulfill the demand. The organization plans to tackle the issue with a series of 3D-printed schools, the first of which was completed in April 2022.
The 765-square-foot honeycombed structure, named Bougainvillea, is located on a university campus in Fianarantsoa, a town in south-central Madagascar. It was developed in partnership with 14Trees, which built the world's first 3D-printed school in Malawi in July 2021. The single-story school will house 30 engineering students.
The construction began with the printer pouring a cement-like mixture in a pattern to create the walls. The entire process took just 18 hours! Once the cement dried, a Madagascan crew swooped in to attach the locally manufactured roof, door, and windows.
The pilot project took three weeks from start to finish and cost $300,000. Half the cost went towards the printer rental and equipment transportation. Maggie Grout, the 22-year-old founder of Thinking Huts, hopes to reduce the cost of future schools by raising funds to purchase a 3D printer.
Grout, a senior at the University of Colorado, Boulder, was just 15 when she started Thinking Huts. Adopted from a rural village in China when she was 18 months old, Grout realized that not all kids were as fortunate and wanted to help. The idea for the 3D-printed schools came to her after brainstorming with her father on ways to use the technology for the greater good.
Resources: Thinkinghuts.org, BBC.com, NewAtlas.com
Get the Workbook for this article!
Workbook contains: Article, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking Questions, Vocabulary in Context (+ answers), Multiple Choice Quiz (+ answers), Parts of Speech Quiz (+ answers), Vocabulary Game (+ answers)Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
60 Comments
iceyqueenabout 2 yearsThat is so cool!
genius1242about 2 yearsbro my 3d printer is not that big
skyward_flightover 2 yearsThat's really cool
charafromutover 2 yearsthis is so perfect because some kids up there have no way of education
tealfoxcatover 2 yearscool- utahraptor_87over 2 yearswhen you think about it the materials cost 150k it's pretty cheap.
kawaiicow546over 2 yearsI'm actually doing a project or presentation on this- utahraptor_87over 2 yearsI'm doing an assignment on this to LOL.
love-artover 2 yearsI love the photography on the front page of this!
dior_queenover 2 yearsI love how everone can go to school what a nice casue Maggie griut
deafgirlhistoryover 2 yearsOMG! Wow! Great cause to do, Maggie Grout! This is a great way to help people that need or want an education!