Anastasia Rivas, the young girl featured on the cover of "Parade Magazine" a few weeks ago, will now be able to do the things she has struggled with, thanks to 3-D printers.

The same sort of technology that gave the 10-year-old a new hand is now available to Northwestern students, who call themselves members of the "Makers Club."

Less than a year old, the Makers Club is attracting the attention of students who see the practical benefits technology promises now and in the future.

Two 3-D printers are available to the group, comprised mainly of underclassmen.

According to the unofficial adviser of the group, Jeremy Smoyer, the Printerbot Simple was purchased with funds from the math budget.

The Printerbot Junior arrived thanks to a grant from the Northwestern Education Foundation, spearheaded by Glenn Frey, science department chair, in collaboration with Smoyer and Joel Dynda.

Smoyer made using the printerbot sound very easy.

"You basically draw something three dimensional and then it will print. I have it wireless right now," he said, pointing to one of the bots.

"Then it goes through a process called 'slicing,' which is the deconstruction of the drawing, layer by layer."

The possibilities for the 3-D printers are virtually endless.

"They just put one of these things up on the international space station so they don't have to wait if a part is broken," Smoyer said. "They can make the replacement right then and there."

The Makers Club offers students unprecedented opportunities.

"It gives us a chance to learn new technology and try things out," explained Smoyer, adding the club is idea driven. "We can work faster than [even] the curriculum allows."

In addition to the 3-D printers, students can also use a 3-D pen and a computer-controlled, micro hot glue gun.

"Imagine extruding Play-Doh a 15th of a millimeter thick and then layering it up to create an object fully usable and three dimensional," Frey said.

Katelyn Morrison is one of the members excited to be in the club.

"I spend my time in school with other Makers collaborating, using my own ideas and going off their ideas," she said. "For me, it's more about what I want to make. Right now I have a plan of a 3-D Tiger logo that could be made into a magnet or a key chain."

It's not hard finding inspiration to fuel these ideas.

"I go off a website called instructables.com," Morrison said.

This, according to Frey is "the world's largest show and tell."

But that isn't the only source of ideas.

"One kid is designing a whole chess set," Smoyer said. "I almost cannot keep up with the log of printing. It's definitely a challenge. Everybody is working on a different project, which is what I want, and in the true spirit of the club."

Ninth grader Michael Boushell, who is fascinated with building robots, uses a program called "first.com."

He is working with three other students, including Logan Keim and two others from the Parkland School District.

"We meet at one of the kid's house because he has a workshop. We're in the middle of building a robot now," he explained. "The actual season starts in September. We have to build a robot [using] CAD. "It's nice to have the opportunity to learn from other people and get together to make stuff."

"There are several levels, from basically designing to actually building the robots," Boushell said.

His team is currently involved in the First Tech Challenge.

Ninth grader JulieAnn Rotondo is working on what she called a "useless box," a toy that is turned on but which turns itself off.

Rotundo is still working on her creation, which she classifies as a robot with personality and attitude.

"I thought it [would be an] interesting project," she said. "It's all handmade. The measurements were the only thing given to me.

"It's a box [housing] a dual system. One lever raises the lid. Another one turns off the switch. It has a mind of its own."

Sophomore Alex Schneck has been working on a Stirling engine, which he describes as "an engine that works off of heat displacement."

"When the bottom gets hot, it drives a displacer up," he explained. "The heat raises the displacer, which acts somewhat like a piston.

"If you tweak it enough [this engine] could probably run a small radio.

"You could make it work, and you could always make it work more efficiently. [The engine] is all made with recycled materials."

Schneck enjoys being a part of the Makers.

"It's just fun to have a break from the usual routine," he said. "You can work at your own pace. I usually fly solo most of the time, but there are people with a common interest, so it's just fun to exchange ideas with others, which will give you ideas for other projects."

Schneck said he is fascinated by how things work and why they work.

"I don't really sit at home and bum around, he said. I've already built three stirling engines."

Smoyer, who in addition to overseeing the Makers, is teaching six different math classes this year, would like to see the Makers receive even more visibility.

"We're not officially a club [but] we're going to a board meeting Nov. 19," he said.

"If it does become an official club, we could take our things to competition," Rotondo added. "We also want to go to a convention with other Makers and see what other people are doing.

"Being part of this group opens your eyes to a lot of new technology."

The Makers Club serves as an entree to how students might want to spend their working life.

"I want to major in aerospace engineering designing space shuttles or rocket engines and how they could get up into space quicker," Morrison said. "I'm very interested in space. There's so much of it that is still unknown."

"I definitely want to study robotic engineering," Boushell said. "It's not really toy stuff. Robots have a lot of practical uses.

"In factories they could replace workers who have to perform repetitive and demeaning works that people can do the work they really enjoy."

According to Boushell, robots could also "be used in the military, in unplanned drones attacks, and in saving people [caught] in natural disasters. We could use robots instead of humans."

Rotondo has not ruled out engineering as a possible career.

"A lot of this generation goes into technology," Rotondo said. "There are a lot of career opportunities."

Engineering is also a possibility for Schneck, as he has always enjoyed taking things apart.

"I was able to put things back together after I took them apart," he said. "I'm working on an Iron Man helmet and I've made all-steel Wolverine retractable claws.

"If I were to go into engineering, it would be in special effects engineering similar to the Myth Busters."

"The creativity and the design sense is already there," said Smoyer, who believes even younger students are excited by the technology the Makers Club showcases.

He recently teamed up with his wife and art teacher, Tracy Smoyer, and witnessed this excitement first hand.

"We did a project last month where we went down to the elementary school. We started the kids with a black pumpkin and we were able to make 20 unique jack-o-lanterns," he said, displaying a few of the designs.

"We're going to do the same thing, where we could take a picture [of a snowflake] and make an actual flake [ornament].

"It's all about taking a concept and making it literal. But you can't do this without the art."

Smoyer sees the Makers as the biggest proponent of STEAM, "science, technology, engineering, art and math."

"Technology is changing and improving as we speak," Frey said. "Von Neumann said we'd be able to build electronic versions of humans, and now you can purchase two printers with filament for under $2,000. Technology prices are dropping."

"What used to be available for only certain people is now freely available," Smoyer said, pointing to the picture of Anastasia and her prosthetic arm. "The Makers Club can foster those principles that can make things like that happen."