Shipping Container STEAM Lab

Welcome to my STEAM Lab! The lab is a headquarters for teachers to operate from while teaching in an outdoor setting. It's meant as an addition to a preexisting outdoor space. To maximize cost effectiveness, the lab requires no connections to power or plumbing to operate -- it's a self-contained system. The facility includes many features including solar panels, air conditioning, a planter box, and storage space.

I'm going into my senior year at Branham High School and a facility like this would be useful for our teachers' outdoor experiments like the chemistry department's exploding pumpkins experiment. Our robotics club could use it as a base for our outreach events and our math club could make good use of it for our pi day activities. Currently with those club activities we often need to go back-and-forth between a classroom and our outdoor area to grab supplies or make simple robot fixes. Having a closer "home base" would make these events run more smoothly since our materials would be more easily available. The building also has four external wall outlets allowing it to provide power if necessary for students. Additionally, a projector screen grants instructors the ability to present videos or slideshow presentations outdoors.

In simple terms, the STEAM lab makes outdoor teaching easier.

For this project I used Fusion 360 for my design and rendering and Autodesk's Netfabb to fix my parts for 3D printing.

Feature List:

• Service tray
• Opening wall
• Projector screen
• Four exterior power outlets
• Two interior power outlets
• Solar panels and mount
• Battery
• Glass door
• Wood ramp (for accessibility)
• Air conditioning
• Large cabinet set
• Vertical display cabinet
• Front sliding window
• Back window
• Modern styled light
• Glassware
• Protracturtle
• Rolling flippable whiteboard
• Flooring
• Planter box
• Magnifying glass decoration
• Building description sign
• Rotatable gears
• Community projects sign
• STEAM LAB sign
• Shipping container

Prototype:

• 3D printer
• Blue filament
• White filament
• Wood filament
• Paints
• Glue
• Tape

To create my physical prototype I made some slight adjustments to my models in Fusion360 to make them more printable. This involved thickening the shipping container, combining the magnifying glass to one piece, removing smaller details, and reducing the amount of supports needed. Because I printed the prototype at a 3% scale, not all detail of the design can be captured by my 3D printing setup. Regardless, I believe it gives a good visual representation of my design beyond digital renders.

A few of my models had some small issues after exporting from Fusion360 so I ran Netfabb's repair scripts on them and this fixed my problems. After this I sliced in simplify3D and printed. The only print which required supports was the shipping container since it has large horizontal overhangs for the windows. I was able to orient all my other parts in ways which wouldn't require support. In removing the supports from the front window I carelessly broke off the central window bar. Thankfully I was able to print a replacement and glue it inside.

Aside from support removal, the only other post-processing I did was on the ramp which I sanded to give it a more "woody" appearance.

The next stage of the prototype was painting the magnifying glass, solar panels, and planter box. This was done using acrylic paints.

Finally I assembled all the parts using tape and glue to hold down parts as necessary.

Overall I'm happy with how the prototype turned out. Particularly, I think the blue filament matches well with shipping containers I've seen in real life.

The interior is meant to be a base of operations for the teachers running the activities. The large cabinets inside are designed to hold whatever an instructor might need whether it be supplies for an experiment or individual kits to pass out to students. Additionally, this storage could provide clubs a place to store their items.

A bright interior light in combination with large windows provide light to the room making it a good workspace. The room also contains an air conditioning unit and a heating unit to keep the room useful throughout the year.

Inside my design I've used Fusion 360s "joints" feature to allow parts to move relative to each other. These parts include: a sliding window, cabinet doors, the front door, a flippable whiteboard, and a swinging side wall.

The swinging side wall has a projector screen mounted on it, giving instructors the ability to present videos or slideshows. Movable seating can be arranged around the screen for student viewing. The swinging wall design shades the projector screen allowing the projected image to be visible even in day light. This opening is also useful because it creates an additional exit allowing for a smoother entry and exit for large numbers of people.

In order to keep the design inexpensive and easily implementable my STEAM lab doesn't rely on preexisting infrastructure. This means it must generate its own power rather than being connected to the grid. Solar panels on the roof charge the battery located inside.

The battery powers the lighting and air conditioning as well as the external and internal wall outlets. Additionally, it can power a projector.

To maximize the adaptability of the design the solar panels can be installed at multiple different angles. In San Jose, the optimal solar panel angle is around 30 degrees, but in summer it's 15 degrees. If needed, the solar panels could be adjusted mid year to optimize energy production. For places with different latitudes the optimal solar panel angle is different. Additionally, the mounts can be installed in either direction allowing for greater flexibility in what direction the building must face. This flexible designs allows the same mounting infrastructure to work in many locations.

On the left side of the building is the Community Projects Wall. Here the wall is partially covered with spinnable gears and partially empty. This wall is meant as a community refrigerator where students can hang work they're proud of. Students could also create projects which magnetize to the wall and interlock with the existing gears. Shipping containers are generally made of corten steel which is magnetic. This means students could hang their work or projects using magnets.

After many hours, saves, revisions, and around 400 timeline features I'm glad to have completed this project. I learned a lot through my process of building this, particularity within the render workspace and I'm glad to have embarked on this project.