The project started with a challenge: how can someone carry a cup of coffee while using a walker? Eighth graders at Franklin Middle School set out to find a solution using the new 3-D printers they obtained through a grant from Toshiba America Foundation.

Kate Evans’s eighth-grade math class partnered with Peabody Place in Franklin to work out designs for 3-D printed carry cups to attach to the walkers. By the end of the year, they aim to print enough to outfit each resident of the retirement home with a cup. The students began brainstorming in the fall and rolled out their prototypes on Tuesday to a group of six Peabody Place residents who took a field trip to visit them.

“It’s an opportunity for them to explore and apply math skills,” said Evans, who applied for the grant last year at the encouragement of a student’s mother. “They got into a lot of three-dimensional figures and being able to apply measurement. It was a challenge. It was really fun to learn to do this printing along with them.”

Inside the maker space room in the middle school library, students talked with the senior residents about the 3D printing process and showed them the designs they tried — including ones that didn’t work — before passing around the one they settled on.

“It’s helped expand my imagination and building,” eighth-grade student Tanner Laro said. “Say I want to do something I couldn’t do before. Now I can just work a little bit on a design for something, and then you can send it to here, which lets you print it. I could use that tool to do what I couldn’t before.”

The printed cups include a slot in which a cell phone can rest, alongside a cut-out for the handle of a mug so that people can decide what sort of cup they want to walk around with. Each Peabody Place participant at the middle school walked out with their own carry cup to take back with them.

Throughout the visit, the space buzzed with energy as the teenagers showed off their work and the seniors asked questions about the process.

“I wish everybody complaining about schools could sit in this room right now,” Peabody Place resident Roberta Burke said. “It’s exciting. I can’t believe what they created in that machine.”

The students spoke about moments of trouble-shooting, since they needed to design a cup holder that could support the weight of a mug — easier said than done. But the collaboration they fostered within the classroom and the excitement of being able to share their finished products helped carry them through any arithmetic and design challenges.

“My favorite part of the project was just altogether knowing that everything ... would go to somebody who would need it and would probably enjoy it very much — and of course, just the creativity that was involved,” said student Preston Champagne.

He and Laro took the lead in demonstrating how the printers work and circulated to each Peabody Place visitor to strike up conversations.

“I can’t believe it’s really happening,” Champagne said. “I dream of becoming someone who makes and invents things. To see the look on their faces when they get this is incomparable.”

Peabody Place cherishes opportunities to build bridges between residents and local students, according to McCauley. The retirement community has participated in joint activities with the Jennie Blake Elementary School in Hill, including a holiday concert, and has hosted pie-making workshops to teach high school students to bake.

“I love to get in schools,” said Peabody Place resident Pat Tingley. “I also was a teacher and a guidance counselor for many years. So just to see the kids and to see them working on something that they’re obviously invested in, it’s great, especially ways to work on things that are helpful to older folks.”

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com.