me

Hi, my name is Cheryl Fife, and I am the teacher librarian at Pepper Ridge Elementary School. I was born and raised in Iowa and went to college at the University of California, Davis. I raised all 5 of my children in the mountains of Truckee, California and then lived in Washington DC for 2 years before moving to Boise. I have 13 grandchildren.  Currently, I am raising one of my grandsons who is a senior at Cole Valley Christian High School.

I have a BS degree in Design and a minor in Theatre from UC Davis and a master of genealogy certificate from the Board for Certification of Genealogists. I have subbed in schools across the country for 33 years and became the librarian at PRE 9 years ago.

I love genealogy, theatre, books, and STEAM activities and include all these themes in my library lessons.  I was Classified Employee of the Year at PRE in 2016 and have traveled to all 50 US states.  I have also enjoyed traveling outside the US to countries all over the world mostly as mission trips to visit my sponsor kids.  Some of the countries visited include Mexico, Canada, Bahamas, Cancun, England, Honduras, Brazil, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman.

 I love my students and enjoy seeing the light in their eyes when they find a book they love reading.  I also want all my students to know how to read and make that a goal for all my lessons. 

FAMILY READ NIGHT NOV 15TH

PRE

BOOK FAIR

DEC 9-DEC 13

********IDAHO EXHIBITION OF IDEAS********

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Our 3-D printing team:

Maximus Grover

William Johnson

Victoria Miranda

Joaquin Steeves-Nunez

Eagon Etheridge

After much discussion about animals and how we could help them, our team decided to help ducks with Bumblefoot as our Veterinarian Science project.

We call our project Duck N Boots.

team

First, we looked into the actual average size of a duck's foot. 3 3/4" by 3" or 90mm by 70mm.

duck feet

Then we talked to veterinaries and novice duck owners to see what changes could be made to help Bumblefoot heal quicker. Here are their suggestions:

easy to put on

reusable

waterproof

easy to walk in

duck

Next, we 3D printed a couple of realistic duck's feet from a file on Thingiverse by Humanamuh. Duck-foot for IKEA VESKEN by Humanamuh - Thingiverse We had to alter the file to enlarge the feet to correspond with the real size of a duck's foot and cut off the very bottom to make the feet sit flat on our 3D printing bed.

3d foot

We designed several shapes for our boots. Rectangles, squares, triangle shapes, until we finally agreed that a true duck foot shape would work best.

sketch
design 1

try 1

try 2

try3

We liked the realistic shaped boot best. But we knew we couldn't create a hollow boot with 3D printing. So, we created a base for our Duck N Boot.

try4

We decided we would need support for the duck's leg to help the duck move around with the Duck N Boot.

try 6

We created several designs and 3D printed many of them. But, we realized that regular PLA filament was heavy and could chafe the duck's delicate skin and feet. So we looked into different filament and found TPU flexible filament. Using flexible filament created challenges as it stretches as it prints and skips if the filament roll is too heavy. It also required a heavier density of print. But in the end, it allows the duck to move more freely and comfortably.

designs

design

Next, we worked on the top of our boot, and how to attached it to the bottom. This also means figuring out how our Duck N Boot will be put onto the duck's foot.

top1

top2

top3

top5

top6

We tried straps with a knob or button closure. We tried a strap that goes around the leg of the duck. We tried gluing the top and bottom together with no luck.

final

In the end, we choose a cap type design. Glued on if necessary. Unfortunately, the only glue that works with TPU filament is Loctite 406, a rubber specific glue. This glue is only available online. So for now our design holds together without glue. Glue would need to be added for a long lasting pro

end