Hi, I'm Gracie, and I'm part of the Design Girls team at Brookwood School.

We design solutions for the 3-D Design Problem Bank.

People at our school submit problems that they need solutions to.

And we solve their problems using 3-D printers.

What's cool about a 3-D printer is that you can build a three-dimensional object from a computer file that has the design of the object, printing it layer by layer by layer.

We're using a program called Tinkercad.

It's open source 3-D printing software.

"Open source" means it's free for anyone who wants to use it.

Now we're expanding the 3-D Design Problem Bank beyond our school by designing solutions for people who live in our community.

We interviewed some seniors at the Harborlight House Senior Residence to see if they had any problems that we could solve with a 3-D printer.

GRACIE: I met with a woman named Joan, and she had a torn rotator cuff, which is in her shoulder, and she couldn't lift her arm up very high, but she loved to play cards.

So what I designed for her was a holder that can hold her cards.

So I printed out a prototype for Joan of the card holder.

A prototype is a smaller version of the actual thing just to test it out and evaluate it.

She said that it was a little uncomfortable because it had two levels to it.

It's too high.

GRACIE: So I took away the one level, and that's printing right now, and it will be lower than the prototype, and I will be presenting it to her tomorrow.

You're a big help, thank you.

Thank you.

So I designed a key holder for Lorraine, who is a resident at Harborlight.

Do you want me to try this out on your key?

Well, you could, yes.

The wide part will help give her leverage to turn the key in the lock.

LORRAINE: And I have to have it up just high enough too so that it'll go in as far as it's supposed to go.

What I need is for this to fit right up snug to this part.

I brought a key holder prototype, and I realized it was too small for her keys.

So it probably won't fit.

Well, we don't know until we try.

ADDIE: Yeah, so it won't turn, so I just need to move it up there.

Now I'm adding a raised part to the key holder so that way, she'll know which end is the top and she won't even have to look at it.

I designed a tablet holder for Joan because she likes to FaceTime with her grandkids.

When I built the prototype, it failed because the holder tipped over.

See, that's the problem.

So that's what happens.

BROOKE: It fell over because there was not enough support in the back.

This is a redesign of my first prototype, and now it works because I made extra support in the back.

I'm really excited to give this to her because I want her to be able to talk with her grandkids.

GRACIE: We made prototypes, got feedback from the seniors, and now we're presenting our new designs to the seniors.

LORRAINE: When we tried it this way, we couldn't open the door.

ADDIE: Yeah, because it was... Yeah.

That's wonderful, thank you very much.

Let's try it.

Her door is over here.

LORRAINE: It should open it, and it does, as you see.

ADDIE: I'm very happy that Lorraine likes her key holder, but if I had to add anything, I'd add LED lights so she could see it in the dark.

Thank you, girls, it worked!

You're great, just great, and I enjoyed seeing you again.

I made the holder for your iPad.

Yes!

I added these support beams right here, and I connected these two together.

JOAN: You guys are clever.

BROOKE: Thank you.

And I made the card holder.

Good.

I added this back in.

I just made it longer and took away the second level, and made the space where the cards go a little bit bigger.

JOAN: Very good.

You're so smart!

I'm so happy I'll be able to play cards again!

I've been going crazy not being able to do anything.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Oh, give me a hug.

GRACIE: I love this project and I love working with the seniors because I really helped them, but they helped me too because I feel great about what I accomplished.