St. Louis High Schoolers 3D-Printed Assistive Devices and Made It to a Global Final

A Classroom Project That Landed on the World Stage

Last spring, 16-year-old students at Principia School in Town and Country, Missouri spent months engineering, designing, and 3D-printing assistive devices for people in the St. Louis community. Two of those projects advanced all the way to the finals of the international Make:able Challenge, a global competition run by PrintLab and Autodesk.

The contest drew 1,200 students from 16 countries this year. Principia submitted 17 projects and had two finalist teams.

Team Easy Bite: Finger Chopsticks That Work

Team Easy Bite was paired with Aimee Wehmeier, a longtime disability advocate who lives with spinal muscular atrophy. The condition progressively destroys motor neurons and makes fine motor tasks extremely difficult. For years, Wehmeier could not pick up snacks like chips on her own.

The three-student team, Paige Icy, Marley Dorsey, and Loganne Love, went through 11 design iterations before landing on a version of finger chopsticks that let Wehmeier grip food without crushing it. Wehmeier said it was the first time she had ever eaten a crunchy snack independently. She also told the students they should market it.

Easy Bite advanced to the finals in the Best Showcase of Iterative Design category.

Team Air Benders: A Stroller Mount That Changed a Family's Routine

A second team, Air Benders, was paired with Izzy, a young girl with Batten disease, a rare inherited neurodegenerative disorder. Izzy needs a suction machine to help prevent choking, and her family wanted a way to carry it on her stroller without the whole system falling apart on the go.

Students Alik Mboya and Mario Almeida built a portable mount that attaches the suction machine directly to the stroller frame. The final design took six iterations to complete. Izzy's mother said simply being able to put the suction machine on the back of the chair and leave the house could be life-changing for the family.

Air Benders was one of 49 finalist teams and advanced in the Best Use of 3D Printing category.

The CoLab Behind the Projects

The projects were part of Principia's CoLab, an interdisciplinary class that blends chemistry, English, world history, and STEM. Students worked through Autodesk's Tinkercad and Fusion 360 design platforms before sending files to 3D printers. The nonprofit MO Better Foundation paired students with real clients from the St. Louis disability community and described itself as a gap funder for assistive technology that insurance won't cover.

Chemistry teacher Melaine Shedd, who helped oversee the projects, said the most important outcome was not the printed parts themselves but the empathy students developed through the process. Several team members said putting themselves in their client's situation was harder than the CAD work.

What Happens to the Designs

It is not yet clear whether Principia plans to produce more copies of the chopsticks or stroller mount for wider distribution, or whether MO Better Foundation will publish the design files so other makers can replicate them locally. For now, the two teams have shown that a high school classroom with a 3D printer and a real client can produce work that competes with teams around the world.