3D Printed Badges: 2020 Exemplars

'John Deere' and 'Scribble Cats' Designs

Challenge: For students to independentally produce 3D Printed badges as a first print for the school year to include versions or approaches to design that we have not featured.
Background: Throughout the past few years as an introductory task to show students 3D Printing we have typically started with a basic design that has featured some personalisation and a practical use.   These are three examples that were all created by students using Tinkercad who met this brief.  To put their designing in context the students are speding the second year in the classroom, having started in the class the previous year, so they have had a year of experience or opportunity with 3D Design.  Students have used Tinkercad to complete the design process.   While there are more detailed and other products, programs and resources in the marketplace and online we have always found this to be dependable, reliable and adaptable.   Students have found the ability to create and make 3D

Cricket themed 'Kian' design

Printed designs easily.  I would also like to recognise as well the ability of Tinkercad to create an entire classroom of student accounts that come under the umbrella of the teacher.   This is flexible and allows the students to work with minimal input.    All three designs were created by students who were ten years old.

The 'John Deere' themed key ring is a key ring for a tractor.  The student located it online and wanted to add the addtion of the 'Dad' under the logo.    'Cats Forever' was created using 'scribble' which is one of the new design.   The key feature of the 'John Deere' design was the fact that the base itself had a lip or edge created for it.   The lip was around the outside of the design, and has a length of 10mm.   The base of the design proper is 5mm.   In usual design of these types of projects the base would be consistent for its entire length, the

Above: John Deere Lip

lip has reduced the need for this and then considerably reduced the print time.   You can see this feature of this design to your left.

Degree of Difficulty: Low - these designs are intented as a creation task to ensure that students are successful.  Refining the design is to simply tweak it slightly. 

Size: While there are three distinct designs featured in this post they have similar dimensions.   The bases are between 100-110mm and they have a height of 100-140mm.   The thickness of the design varies slightly the 'Kian' and 'Cats Forever' designs have a universal thickness to them, as noted 'John Deere' had a lip that was created that significantly improved the print time relative to the other prints in the series.  Given the revised versions of the print this change could have been made.
Timeframe: Three and a half hours ('John Deere') four and a half hours ('Kian') and six and half hours ('Cats Forever').   We would have revised this design to reflect the lip given the opportunity.
What we would do differently/next steps for students: Given the lip considerations mentioned otherwise the students designs/purpose etc. for the students was successful.