3D Printing and Laser Cutting Sphero Resources

 

Not only do we have a range of 3D Printing and other machines available for our students to use we also have other technology that can be used and created.

Sphero Robots are a coding robot that we have had at our school for a number of years.   We find these robots work very well with our junior and middle school students and overtime we have created a number of resources with the technology to use in conjunction with the robots.

An obvious example is the town and the garage designed to work with a Sphero Robot.  We have students when they feel confident in using the 'drive' option with the robot and have used the coding maps that we look to include challenges and tasks involving the building.

Although its showing its age this building and garage was built using the school laser cutter.   With dimensions of 300mm across, 220mm deep or long and 150mm high - this is too large to 3D Print.   This size  allows the robot the ability to choose either entrance to go into.

The design was cut with MDF and then had a layer of regular cardboard applied to provide the texture that can be seen in the photograph.    We also use blocks or rods combined with the building to increase the level of difficulty.

We have also created a range of other resources that combine with the technology.    In 2024 we looked at creating paddles to work in conjunction with the robots which are waterproof.   You can view this post here.   This was also detailed when we experimented with creation boats and using Pixton Comic Creator to create a series of posters to explain the students work - you can view examples of this by clicking on this link here.

While Tinkercad is a free web based software for the year that we used Pixton in 2024 we paid a subscription for the students to have access to the full range of Pixton creation, allowing us to create a range of student generated media that relate to both Tinkercad, 3D Printing and Sphero robots - as shown left.

We also used Pixton to publish the 3D Printed designs of the students to present and explain what they have made and created for their designs.    This might be an option for schools concerned with the privacy of the students (as their images in these presentations are represented by avatar figure of the students).

This year we are looking at the students creating additional resources that are 3D Printed to use in combination with the Sphero Robots.     The students are currently thinking about ideas about what they can use to create to them move forward to the prototyping stage.