James B. Conant High School science teacher Dave Torpe and Applied Technology Department Chairman Eric LeBlanc have been occupying their time recently doing what they can to support medical professionals combating the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to social distancing, Torpe and LeBlanc have been working on different personal protective equipment (PPE) designs from their homes.

"You could tell from the photos I saw that she was putting her heart and soul into District 211 families, and it really made me want to do more," he said.

"I learned about a movement through another staff member at Conant, Brigit Cain, about an open source design from a group of doctors in Montana that made and shared online a design for a surgical mask."

He added that while the masks have not yet been approved by the FDA, there is strong evidence about the effectiveness of this design.

While LeBlanc has been working on masks, Torpe has been working on creating face shields. He said he was able to find a pattern at 3dverkstan.se, and current information on the clinical review can be found at 3dprint.nih.gov/discover/3dpx-013306.

Torpe said he came up with the idea to make the masks after reading about the need in the online 3-D community.

"There were some posts in the 3-D community that had some people designing solutions for medical professionals," he said.

Following a discussion with Conant High School Science Department Chairwoman Sharon McCoy, Torpe began printing PPE equipment that was in demand. He then retrieved some 3-D printers from the school and began using them to print the components needed to assemble the face shields.