Check out this amazing Site!

 

We are always looking for creative ideas for our students and love when we find ways to share, connect and learn from others.

Recently our teacher connected with another educator, Todd Lavogue from Florida, USA.   He had amassed a huge range of STEM related activities with his students which are logged and detailed on his fantastic website - it is a wonderful combination of examples, ideas and inspiration for students and teacher.   You can access his fantastic site and see his wonderful work and some awesome student work by visiting this blog.

3D Printed Revision Updates

 

We published this initial print on April 16th and wanted to show an example of how a student can take an idea and rework and adapt something to ensure that it fits the brief better by reengineering.

This student is designing for the first year and has spent the past two months working on their Tinkercad skills.  The student has used their iPad the Tinkercad App and a 3D Printer to produce this digital object which has been produced as a physical object.

Once the student had examined the print, looked at it with the teacher and worked out a way to feature or address what had been made they were able to make a range of significant changes.

First and foremost as shown the size of the print was greatly reduced.   The initial print was imagined as a badge or label for a bag, but in its original form it was considered to be too large.

The original design was 135mm by 135mm as can be seen left the revised version was 85mm by 80mm.  The design remained with the same width.   While there was some additional design put onto the creation there was a significant reduction in the print time.    The print time for the original was three and a half hours.   With the reduced size the print time was one hour.   The price point for the original design was $2.30 and the revised version was $0.67.

Once these changes had been made we also printed out a second copy using the same orange that the original print was completed in.   It potentially could do with additional design reflection (as it is quite 'busy' when it is shown and developed) however the student concerned was extremely pleased with how it looks and how it has developed.

 

The next step for the student from here is of course to look for opportunities to create, design and make a range of different digital images and physical objects using the skills that they have developed and are developing.

There are a multitude of similar designs like this which you can access by using the search bar in the top right hand corner of this blog.

The student concerned with this project is seven years old and other than the verbal feedback on the first design worked independently to complete the design.

Roland Versa Sign Maker - Senior Tech

We have mentioned in several posts that the senior students at Auroa Primary School are very lucky to be able to take part in DPE which is our senior technology program.    This is sometimes called tech and our students have a range of programs and tasks they can complete from cooking, art, sewing to laser cutting and digital technology.

In digital technology the students have completed a project using the Roland Versa Sign Maker.   This has been referred to on this blog as our 'sticker machine' which has been used for a range of projects which you can view a small sample of by clicking on the link here.

Mr Bloor our amazing AV teacher who is responsible for so many great projects at our school has been working with a group of students on these 'scaled down' versions of arcade machines.   The decals for the machines have been created by our Y7/8 students and the machines themselves printed on the Bambu H2D.

There are a variety of machines shown here - including a minature version of our Step Master Machine and also various versions of some of our other arcade machines.

In the past we've held yearly competitions with these machines and broadcast them online.   You can click on this link here to see last years Dance Machine competition and last years special 'K Pop Demon Hunters Dance Machine Special'.

You can view the grand final of our very first Pinball competition here and our tie in movie Pinball Machine, where we based a machine on our drive in movie here.   Finally we have a big announcment to make - we are again, after a three year break hosting a virtual pinball tournament here at Auroa Primary School for our students! 

The details of this will be announced very shortly but they will be put online and shared here and we will be broadcasting the competiton later in the term!

Revising and reworking a Print

 

Challenge: To rework and redesign a previous creation to ensure that it develops its detail and successfully adapts to meet its brief.

Background: This the student reviewed the design (shown left in the photograph) and revised it.   The original post was featured on this blog here.  The student wanted to develop the item as phone holder.   The student had realised after testing that the phone needed a lip to be introduced into the design to ensure that a phone did not slip off the print.

The student also wanted to introduce several other features on the design.  They included in the revised version the large stars which were placed on both ends of the design.   As this print is now intended to be a gift for the upcoming Mothers Day.   The print now has 'Mum' on the front of the design and 'Happy Mothers Day' written on the back.

All of these adjustments were completed by student independently and have greatly increased the 

Level of Difficulty: Medium - the student was adjusting the design to meet the intended brief and purpose for the design.

Size: As per the original design 130mm by 70mm by 60mm.   Essentially the same as the original with dimensions not affected by the additional features.

Cost/Price: The original print used 87g of PLA filament to complete the revised version of the print used 113g which included additional lettering, the lip etc.   The cost for the original design was $1.75 the adjusted price for the revisions for this print the price has increased per unit to $2.83.   This has been calculated by Bambu Studio Labs inbuilt software.

Timeframe:  The original print took two hours and ten minutes to complete.  With the additional details added into the print this increased the duration of the print to four hours.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the student:

The revisions with the print have been very important to ensure that the purpose of the design has been met.  The addition of the 'Mothers Day' theme for the design has also given it a a specific purpose.   There are not more additions that will be required for this print.

3D Printed Giant Cyclops Design

 

Challenge: For an eight year old student to create a unique 3D Printed design using Tinkercad that includes plastic eyes as part of the design.

Equipment Used: iPad, Tinkercad App, Orange PLA (regular) Bambu H2D.

Background: This design came out first in a challenge set to our students from September 2025 to include a novelty eye as part of a Tinkercad design.  We revised this again in April of this year having students include the physical (eye) as part of a design.

This design came out of this print.  It needs to be stated at this point that this is an extremely large oversized design and it was always intended as a single print.   The design was completed by an eight year old student who is showing flair and creativity with his work both last year and this year in the classroom - he created this design and did so without any input from the teacher.

Level of Difficulty: High/Hard - this design was developed over several attempts by the students and they revised the design several times to ensure that it was balanced and robust and worked.

Size: The print is significant for a single run print.   It measures 150mm across the main body has the tentacles that extend 120mm from the top of the print and has legs that are 70mm high.   From the base of the print to the top is 240mm.

Cost/Price: Using the inbuilt software for Bambu Studio Labs the the print used 364g of filament (including rafting under the design) and had a price point on current dimensions of $9.10.

Timeframe: The intention was always to push the limits of the printer with this design and the print took fourteen hours to complete.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: Due to the scale of the design and the length of time it took to complete it is not viable as such to complete it again and is more of a one off.  The student put too large and deep holes in the base of the design and this is an excellent storage for whiteboard markers (as shown in the photographs).    The eyes that can be seen at the front of the design could have benefitted from being placed more to the front of the design as they are somewhat sunken into place by the design.

Laser Cut - Presentation Box for Student Exemplars

 

This creation has come from one of our amazing teachers here at school which came out of an idea about ways to display exemplars of students work.  We have looked online at various items for displaying of figures with a combination of LED strip lighting and MDF or wood veneer.

The idea is to have a semi permanent display with some exemplars physically present to show as a example of our students creativity and innovation.

In the example display box shown left the laser cutter has been used to create both the top and bottom for the box which has then been stained to alter the colour.

The walls of the box have been created by using the laser cutter to cut perspex which has then been anchored into position by the slots created by the box.

The design at present measures 200mm by 220mm and has a height of 260mm.   The wooden lid is designed to lock the Perspex into place and is 220mm by 220mm and is 5mm high. 

Although there is no LED strip lighting directly linked to the display box it would be potentially possible via the lid and a battery operate light (inexpensive fairy lights might also work in the same manner).

This would potentially allow the school to easily create a bank of exemplars that could either be stacked on top of each other or combined with another furniture item.

This photograph left shows the storage box placed in a cube shaped storage item - although if it was to be permanently mounted into something such as this we would potentially look at the dimensions to increase the size relative to where it is placed.

There are a significant number of sites online which contains laser cut files for the purpose.

We also have created a bank of examples of laser cut projects which are located via the tab on the main page of this blog.

Step Master Machine - 2026 Updates

 

Regular visitors to this site will be aware that one of the amazing pieces of technology that are available to our students is the incredible Step Master Machine!

Mr Bloor has spent time during the holidays rebuilding, repairing and reconstructing the dance pads that are an important part of the machine - you can see the brand now steps pads here.

The original machine was built using the laser cutter here at school, the 3D Printers, the amazing sticker machine for the decals and an incredible amount of hard work.

This is a full sized machine based on the 1990s Arcade Machine 'Dance Dance Revoultion.   Mr Bloor our amazing digital technician built this machine with a group of our students (you can view the amazing story of its construction here).

Since the machine was built students have been updating the media each year with students creating their own media and music videos that work on the machine you can see examples of this here.

Each year we have a competition for our students based on the machine.   We have been live streaming the event via Youtube for the community for the past few years - examples of which you can see including last years finals by clicking on the links here.   

Last year we also held a very special themed event based on the K-Pop Demon Hunters with the Auroa School K-Pop Demon Hunters Challenge - you can view the footage of this mega event by clicking on this link here.

We have not made an official announcement about the potential 2026 competition for our students but keep your eyes peeled as an announcement about a competition for 2026 might be coming very shortly for our students!