The Castle Teacher Resource Activity Center (CTRAC) in Chaminade’s School of Education and Behavioral Sciences recently donated 62 face shields to nurses in the Trauma Unit at Queen’s Hospital to use as protection while treating patients with COVID-19.
When Chaminade staff approached Graduate Assistant Veronica Haskell about using the CTRAC equipment to create face masks, she immediately got to work creating a prototype. With a successful prototype in hand, she went into production and produced the face shields using the center’s 3-D printer and laser cutter.
Haskell, a graduate student in Chaminade’s Master of Arts in Teaching program, has worked at CTRAC for less than a year. She has learned to master both the 3-D printer and the laser cutter in that short period of time and has been invaluable on numerous projects, including this one.
CTRAC was established nearly 10 years ago through generous funding from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, and provides a much-needed space for students to study, relax, create and socialize. The center was turned into a maker’s space in 2018 and now houses the 3-D printer and laser cutter, both of which are available for student use.
Haskell worked with Dr. Elizabeth Park, associate professor of education at Chaminade, and Dr. Amber Noguchi, director of Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs at Chaminade. Together, they were able to coordinate the delivery of the masks to Queen’s in a contactless drop-off on June 1, 2020.