3D Printing Week Two in the Classroom

 

What happened in the classroom during the second week (in four classroom days, afternoons only) in regards to Digital Design?

Students continued to develop and explore possibilities with Tinkercad.   The focus was on using the program in two groups.

Cohort Two were working on the start of their AR/VR designs for the year.   They have been working on projects such as the farm house repair - in the example shown left the student has applied their skills to start to look at potential to create a 'flip' for the roof.   Other students are working on the doors and attempting to work out a way to have them swinging on a basic hinge.    You can follow this project by using the label tag 'AR/VR Exemplar' or clicking on the link here.

We have completed the badge projects detailed last week.    Selected students have returned to them independently and created more advanced layers.  In the example shown left the student wanted to opt to add in a basic shape with a different hole section and finally added a butterfly - the wings required some rafting but the teacher was able to remove this successfully.   You can read details of this project by clicking on the link here.   You can look at a multitude of badge designs by using the 'label'.

Last year we wrote at length about a project from the students to solve an issue around our school.   One of the issues where we identified that the 3D Printers could prove a practical solution was to the areas of our school verandah where we had birds nesting and bird infestations.

Due to the shape of the building and the connections there are protected gaps where birds have been repeatedly nesting, which is directly above an area where our students eat their lunch and sit during break times.   This area can be affected by bird waste as they are nesting.

We were able to use our iPads, the measure app and the Tinkercad app to create customised 'bird block' to prevent access to this area.  We have been identifying where these have gone, applied contact cement to glue them in place and are observing what now happens as a result.   We know that the 3D Printer is robust enough to allow the prints to be drilled through should the prints require a further way to secure them but at this stage this appears to be extremely successful.   You can view the original problem, potential solution and students progress by clicking on this link here.

Revised Junior School Stencils

 

Revision One: The student whose work featured yesterday conducted testing with their stencil.   They worked with another student and produced a second stencil - all of the shapes that are shown here are featured from the basic Tinkercad interface.   

The dimensions of the updated stencil remain similar to yesterday and crucially the width (1mm) and the print time (twenty five minutes) remains the same.

The task being completed the student is moving onto the second challenge in the series, including their name as part of the stencil and also including a design unique to the student created using the 'stencil' icon.

This is a first attempt that is the first to feature a student working on the block lettering for their name.   In this example the student choose the block lettering for their name and used the edit feature to increase the size of the lettering.   There are currently only four text types/font available for use with Tinkercad  however students have the option of increasing their depth, width and making the features 'sharper' which suits this print.   The dimensions of the print are slightly different from the original as it is a more box shape, this being 120mm by 120mm.  Again however the width of the print (1mm)  is such that the print took less than thirty minutes to complete. 

Revisiting Stencils from 2025

 

Challenge: For students to produce an original stencil that could be used for an art design.

Background: We attempted this in November 2025 and it proved to be a popular challenge for the students.  At the time we had a number of other projects that were taking place and it was always going to be something to revise at a later date.

The idea was relatively straight forward.   By using the Tinkercad main interface available via the program (or the app) students were able to locate the 'hole' icon.   This allows students to pull a hole though a solid shape.  In this case it creates a stencil effect.   The biggest issue was the thickness of the potential stencil.   In the case shown above the Bambu H2D is able to produce a stencil that is 1mm thick - which allows a minimum print time for the project but has enough strength that it can be used as a functional stencil.

Not all of the stencil shapes were successful - the house which can be viewed on the Tinkercad screenshot which is in the bottom left did not have the correct linking on the inside of the print so when the print was removed from the printer this part of the print did not survive the process (and created the shape which you can see bottom right in the photograph).   

The student is now going to refine the design, think about what other shapes might be able to be created, including some specific challenges (see below).

Level of Difficulty: This is low as it is another introductory task.   The concept or key idea to use with the challenge is the hole tool.   This can be mastered easily by the (seven and eight year old students) and then applied to their general designs.    The shapes can be sourced from the Tinkercad library, or in the case of the house the students can use the 'scribble' command to create unique designs.

Size: The key element to the design is its width or thickness which in this case is 1mm.  The print was 150mm long and 86mm wide or tall.   To aide in the printing time the stencil shapes are essentially hollow so that part of the plate/design does not print.

Cost/Price: To complete this stencil used 12g of filament.   Using the Bambu Lab Studio information we can determine that the cost of this print was $0.30c.  A word of caution - this was completed using the Bambu H2D it might be beyond the capability of some 3D printers to complete the details.

Timeframe: The print took 25 minutes to print making it one of the shortest prints that we would be completing - of course this is primarily due to the width of the print.   It makes it a potential task to complete with a class of students.

What we do next/Next steps for the students: The key issue with a print like this in the early stage is the detail from the students.   They are able to complete this task easily but it is the unique nature of the task where the potential lies.   Students could use the scribble command and create a specific design - in this instance the student did not use a 'font' but could have easily done so to create their name, or the name of their school as the centrepiece.   It is also considering what patten the stencil might be used for, while obviously some kind of tessellation is easily achieved perhaps the student could have an art piece in mind prior to their Tinkercad design and they then complete it with this in mind.

This is a post that will be updated when further students have completed their designs.

You can see additional work based around this process and concept by clicking on the link here from November 2025 or a design involving spray painting from 2024.

2026: Using Tinkercad for AR/VR Building Design

 

We have posted extensively in the past about how we are increasingly using Tinkercad and the Tinkercad App to AR/VR students designs for the purpose of prototyping.

This means that prior to potential printing students can apply a design, consider it, rework and potentially then reflect and design - with 3D Printing being the final potential step.

We wrote last year after school finished that we had made a series of purchases for potential classroom projects - including the design shown left.

In this instance the students decided to start with potentially one of the basic designs - a door to work in conjunction with the structure.  Apart from a basic design  of the door the challenge for the student is to consider the design of a hinge.  There is a small bracket which is on the door frame on the right.  In the example shown left the student (who is eight years old) has used the app and then projected the image into the design to see if it 'looks right' and therefore can advance further with the design, make adjustments or reconsider their approach.   The key area of the design is the hinge and allowing the ability for the door to be open and closed.   Students are aware from completing the 'badge' process that the anticipated print time for this project is in the region of thirty minutes.

3D Printing Lore #6- Dont Underestimate the Students

 

3D Printing Lore #6- Don't Underestimate the Students

We are currently two days into the school year - after two brief sessions of students from our school using #Tinkercad to complete designing task students have been able to complete the following designs, which we have now printed.  In the case of our 2026 class the students are developing their work based around using their iPads, the App and then completing the designs themselves.

In both cases shown here the students have already produced these as individual projects - the teachers sole role with the project has been to print the projects.  Moving forward I will be looking for as many opportunities as possible to use provocations with the students and I look forward to watching their ideas develop.

Previously with regards to lore or challenges:

#1. You don't need more than a single printer to print in a school environment.

#2 You don't need to 3D Print all of your students 3D Printing projects

#3 3D Print using glow-i-the-dark or other filament is easy

#4 Juniors can 3D Print just as well as seniors

#5 The teacher is aware

3D Printing First Novice Print of 2026

 

Challenge: For an eight year old to produce their first independent project.

Background: As noted elsewhere on this blog, this is the first challenge for the students in the classroom.  All work described is being completed independently using just an iPad with no previous experience in the use of Tinkercad.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this is an introductory task for students completed in thirty minutes from start to finish by an eight year old who hasn't used Tinkercad before.

Size: The print measured 90mm across was 90mm high and 5mm wide.   It is made this size as it is intended for the student to use it as a bag tag.   If it was a key ring it would not be suitable.

Cost: This was completed on the Bambu H2D.  Using the Bambulab software we can determine that the print used 18g of filament to be produced and it had a projected cost of $0.44c.   Regular white PLA was used to complete this print.

Timeframe: The completed time for the print was 32 minutes.  It was part of a class set where we were realistically using the main school printer to print a set of fifteen projects over the course of two days.  It was intended to get a project completed by a student, get them excited and get them thinking about future possibilities.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students: Nil - completed as hoped.  We used students who had experience from last year to use Tinkercad and also a Flipped video from this site.

3D Printing Week One in the Classroom

What happened in Week One of Auroa Primary School for 2026 in regards to Digital Design:

To complete work in the first week of school students used their iPads and accessed the Tinkercad website to log into their online design accounts, used the Tinkercad software and created their first designs.

Currently we have not used the Tinkercad app or completed any AR/VR work.

Cohort One: This is the new group of students to the classroom who have had no previous experience with using Tinkercad. They are eight year olds who are developing and exploring their use of Tinkercad for the first time this year. They have a regular iPad to create all of their designs. One of the students has access to their own 3D Printer however they are using it more for printing pre-made items rather than original design at this stage.

We were able to assess their efforts by using the Tinkercad Classroom Interface.   An effort was made to print as many of these initial designs as possible to give the students a physically created print to think about and have as an output.    As non of the prints were sized to take more than one hour (on the Bambu H2D) and there were 15 students in this group this was achievable.

Cohort Two: Students (eight years old) who used Tinkercad for one year.   These students had grasped many of the principals and ideas and used Tinkercad actively for some time.   For these students we allowed them to tutor or help the other students on the first day and on the second day start the rebuild of the toy farmhouse to replace the doors etc.   They were measuring, designing, checking and then problem solving to think about a hinge and how the door might be able to be swung open.  For the purpose of sizing the students used some examples of the name badges. We are hoping that this will lead to the sharing of ideas with the other group of students once they have completed designs. It is our intention to complete another seperate lesson next week for both groups before combing challenges from this point forward as all the students will have the fundamental design skills that are required to start working on projects. Next week we want to focus on the 'stencil' idea from last year as we want the students to master the concept of using 'hole' to insert and modify basic shapes.