Independent Junior Creations 3D Prints

 

Challenge: For a 'new' design student to create something unique.

Background: We've mentioned a little about our set up previously and how we are operating with our digital technology.  Essentially we are a 'normal' state school in a rural area with 'regular' students.   

Our design time is part of one of our key themes of innovation as is the fact that we are a Apple Distinguished School (ADS) and we also have a 1:1 iPad environment (from when the students are five years old and enter our school).  

Design usually takes place in the afternoon block, depending on other commitments - and can be as short as ten minutes or sometimes the better part of an hour.   One of the things that we have experienced in the past and has started happening again this year is students designing and creating in their own time and then bringing a potential project into school for printing.   This is something that we tend to encourage where possible and make sure that we can print files or designs that have potential or promise that can be advanced further.

This project is an example of this process.  The seven year old student who has started designing at the start of this year is currently experimenting with a range of original designs - the donut being a previous one that she was responsible for.  In this example here she has explored the basic designs and shapes template and started experimenting with making various shapes - and done so in her own time.

This will hopefully lead onto further designs - once the first prototype was completed and printed we started asking questions about it, such as what would it purpose be, what it might be used for, how could it be changed and what modifications might be needed.

One the potential uses that came out of this discussions was that it might be able to be used as a pair of ear-rings or other item (counting toy to help with number bonds).   The student also put their name across the design (which is upside down in the photographs).

Level of Difficulty: This is an introductory task completed by a seven year old working with CAD design, their iPad and Tinkercad for two weeks.

Size: The larger of the two designs measured 100mm by 70mm and was 20mm wide.   The smaller design was 50mm by 40mm and was likewise 20mm wide.

Cost Price: Printed on the Bambu H2D the larger design used 22g of PLA and cost $0.54 to produce according to the Bambu Labs summary.   The smaller version used half of the PLA.

Timeframe: The larger of the figures took just over one hour, the smaller figures were two thirds of that time.   This would be modified depending on the purpose of the projects.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: Technically there is very little that we would change from the project.  We want to encourage the students to be completing the work, in this case the student went to the extent of completing the design independently and in their own time.