3D Printed: Projects to create interest

 

We have mentioned in the past about prints that we produce that are generated from online sites - and while we do not print them in significant numbers we do so on occasion either for a specific purpose or to create a thinking point for students.

Two recent examples are for a community event where the local farming group are having an event.  We have previously produced table centre pieces for a local surf club dinner in February 2023 in a post where you can see the details here.

In this example shown with the cow we located a print that had been made available online via the Thingiverse site.   This is one of a number of online sites that have a huge volume of files, projects and options available, some of which in the past we have modified for our own students projects - such as this example when a coaster was inverted to provide the backing image for an iPad stand that was used in our 2025 School Market Day.

As can be seen from the illustration the cow itself has considerable detail.   For the dinner we are intended to create the point of interest by printing a range of the cows in different colours that would make them stand out, hence the 'glass orange' shown in the photo but we will be producing a group of fifteen or so in non traditional colours.

Each of the prints is significant.   It measures 200mm across and stands 150mm high.   The print uses 130g of filament to complete, costs $3.23 and takes four hours and ten minutes to complete.   There was a degree of rafting or waste plastic underneath the base of the cow but it was not significant.   While the cost of the production of these animals is significant is the schools intention to see it as a donation and also potentially use these animals as part of a class play set following the event for our junior class of students as farming based activities can be quite popular.

Likewise the spider (shown left) has come out of the students in the classroom and one in particular has a specific interest in spiders.   We were able to produce this spider as a reward for the student to complete their work.   It is fairly significant in that it measures 160mm long and is 130mm wide.   The print uses 65g of PLA filament to complete and cost $1.50 to produce.   It has a print time to complete of three hours and ten minutes.

This is going to be an item that is printed in limited amounts, and we would ask students who wanted something like this 'what would you add to change it or what would be the purpose of the print - if they could demonstrate an idea to modify or adapt this print then it would meet some basic criteria but as it stands this will very much remain a limited design.

Principal's Student Challenge: Stencil

 

Challenge: Principal has challenged students to create a useable stencil for him to work in conjunction with his notebook.

Background: Last year our Principal challenged the students from our classroom to create a unique trophy that could be awarded at school as part of our prize-giving.  You can follow the progress of the project when it started here see it develop further here and finally look at the finished product here.   Since we started this year working on our original stencils the Principal saw some of the students early examples which alerted him to problem that he was wanted to solve - to have a unique stencil for his 'Principals Notebook' (with the example shown left).   He met with a small group of students personally, supplied the design and explained his requirements.

He also previously challenged students to create an official school paperclip which you can see us blogging about in August from last year by clicking on the link here

It took some of the students (who again we would like to point out are seven and eight years old) under ten minutes for the first design to be completed.   This design was important as it allowed us to look at the students understanding of the task - what had they determined from their instructions, and what adjustments did they need to make.    We also discovered something more with Tinkercad - that you can indeed design something that is bigger than the plate and still export it as an .stl file - and then subsequently print it.

We decided to make this a class challenge - when we were going to award a reward for the project that the Principal would identify as being the one that best followed his instructions and created a brief.  As this was the case we made sure that the students created an AR/VR version of their design once it had been completed and then using the Tinkercad App projected it virtually into the classroom to allow students to check the design for flaws or faults.   In the example shown left the student needs to make some adjustments to the design - hence the important of being able to design and create, but in this case not necessarily have to 3D Print.   In 2025 we developed a slideshow of examples of activities that met this brief - you can click on the link to view the post about the slideshow here.

We printed the first examples shown left - and then allowed the Principal to have a follow up meeting with the students to give them feedback to refine their design.   We already knew from the stencil printing that we would be looking at a print time somewhere in the region of thirty minutes to an hour and this proved to be the case.   

Again the feedback from someone not involved in the production with the students has been invaluable to get them to understand the concept of feedback and refine their designs.   Again while there is no intention for repetition but the stencils that the students have been producing has led directly to this spin off and the 1mm width of the design has meant the print time is extremely reasonable.

Since we have started to complete this it has then come to the teachers attention that producing something similar to this stencil but using it as a whiteboard border or a organiser for the classroom would potentially be a practical and a really great use of the 3D Printer - and then using magnets etc to attach it to the whiteboard should work really well.

The final stage of the process will be the feedback - when the Principal will then be selecting the best virtual versions which will then progress through to the printing process.   The details that are contained below are the first prototype to give an explanation of what is likely to be required for the finished product (which when completed this week we will publish).

Level of Difficulty: Medium.   Success of this process will require the students to respond to specific dimensions and directions from the Principal of the School to ensure their designs are perfect to complete the brief.

Size:    The top design measures 250mm by 170mm and the second design is slightly smaller measuring 190mm by 170mm.  In both cases as we have been completing with our stencil work the width of the print is 1nn.

Cost/Price: The larger print used 50g of PLA the smaller slightly less in 40g.    The cost for the larger print according to the Bambu Lab software was $1.20 and $1.00 respectively.   

Timeframe: The larger print took one hour and ten minutes and the smaller print took just under one hour.

What we do differently/Next Steps for the Students: Feedback and more feedback from the Principal and the task is completed.   This will depend on the students following the feedback and communicating with the Principal until it is successful.

Novelty Initial Design: Donut

 

Challenge: Junior student to produce something unique and functional in Tinkercad.

Background: Its the start of the school year after two weeks of challenges and design ideas the students are working on several projects.  A number of students have taken the initiative and started to create and work on their own designs.   While it isn't possible to print all of these there are some that we have selected as being functional or having potential so we have followed through with the process of printing them for the students.   There is a very loose criteria for this - it is presently depending on the availability of the printer (and what other projects are under consideration, available PLA etc).   In this case the design was from a first time student and it met a number of criteria.

We are hoping that it will inspire others, get them thinking and then lead onto other things, designs and creations for the students involved.   The student who designed and created this is a Y4 student who is eight years old - designing for the second week and as noted created this in their own time, obviously using the basic Tinkercad interface,

The design has proved popular in the classroom and has been passed around from students to provide a range of fun that are creating some provoking questions.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this is created independently from the teacher by someone in their own time making something 'fun'.  It involves one specific shape followed by some additions.

Size: The donut measures 140mm across from tip to tip and the sides are 40mm wide and 40mm high.

Cost/Price: To produce this item took 98g of filament.    There was some rafting that was associated with the sprinkles.  Using the Bambulab sim information we can determine that the print cost $2.50 to make with regular filament (in this case Bambu 'Orange Glass').   

Timeframe: This print took three hours and fifteen minutes to complete.   Relative versions would need to take the size required into account depending on what the purpose of this would be.

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

We have experimented with the donut in the school pool.   Over the years we have become aware that a standard print with a twenty per cent infill is essentially able to float in water.   Last year when we had our school Market Day we had an entire product and group business based around this fact.

We also allowed the student to have it in the classroom and have 'fun' with it by trying it in different locations.    It was suggested that this could be used to tie a bag together (as the knot or bow could be tied around the donut holding it all together).

Another student used it as the base for a water bottle and students identified that they would be able to use it to hold a water bottle in place.   They were considering using it with a student who might have trouble balancing it and have it fall over.   To complete this purpose the design would need to be resized to meet the diameter of a bottle.   It was used as it was to play tag (particularly in the pool) however the students wanted to make it available as some form of ring toss game - but again it was considering that it would need to be resized and remade.

Although it might not be particularly obvious from the shots that can be seen with this post the 'sprinkles' part of the design sort-of kinda-worked but didn't really.   A number of them didn't survive the printing process, they were either removed when the rafting was taken off or fell off when completed.  There are several that appear to be attached to the print but not securely although this week the student didn't report any additional loss with the print.

The biggest consideration for a change would be the student going smaller or having more of a specific purpose.   One of the things that the students realised is that by having a 140mm wide donut there was a tendency to use it as a bracelet - or that they could have easily included a name or a description on it by utilising the skill that they learnt with the stencils - making a hole in an object.

Tinkercad App as an AR/VR Tool Juniors

 

No seperate green screen app or indeed special location is required - students with their iPads and the Tinkercad App are able to take their iPad to any location and then project the Tinkercad design or image into a location and increase its scale dramatically.

These examples for the junior school students were tasters - we had a total of ten minutes for the students to work their virtual creations into an actual picture at some location around our school.   The elephant shown left is available using the search bar from Tinkercad and then can be easily transmitted into the AR/VR situation.

In the example left the super sized 'king' frog (of course the crown was added quickly as a little nice touch) can be seen cleverly to scale by the one story building that is bottom right hand corner with the two students standing next to it to give it scale.

All the designs can have their colour changed using the app, including either entire colour or partial colour changes.   We have thought about using this as a writing prompt for students or thinking about other locations that this might be suitable to wow or amaze people with.

In the example shown left the students have stretched themselves with the location here.   They have used a window from the school playground and then projected the image into this location.

To complete this activity students require the Tinkercad app and an iPad.   There is no additional material or equipment required.

You can view additional examples from our students by using the keyword search AR/VR in the 'search' tab in the top right hand corner of this blog.

Creating Doors for our Farm Toy Building

 

We have a number of projects that are ongoing this year, designed to engage and challenge our students.  The Dolls House Project from 2025 has led us to look into other rebuilding projects for 2026.   In this example we selected a thrift store farm building that required a number of missing parts.

As we have done with many projects this year we have students having a brainstorming session followed by a degree of design using #Tinkercad and their #iPads we have previously posted we had students brainstorm ideas, create a draft and then place it on the design using Tinkercad's AR/VR tool.

The next step in the process for the students is to start the physical printing of the early prototype with a lean towards refining, adapting and improving the students design.   The photo left shows the first version of the door for the front of the building.    This is a straightforward design for the students which features a small handle and an attempt to solve the issue of a hinge by developing an attachment for the slot to connect to.

The door has been made independently by a Y4 student who is using Tinkercad for the second year.  It is a basic rectangular design, which was sized by the student.   The attempt to complete the door by having it work in conjunction with the groove works in the sense that it holds it in place when static but when the door is opened it tends to fall off.   While the students could glue the door into place the intention is to have them experience some basic engineering to problem solve successfully.

The current dimensions of the door shown are a 60mm by 80mm rectangle.   It took 45 minutes to complete, used 18g of filament at a cost of $0.45

The other part of the design that students are trying to deal with is the roof.  Again we have followed a similar process to the door.   The students identified the measurements, worked on some basic shapes and the adapted these to meet the design of the roof.   The final part for consideration and again the hardest part of the design for the students to complete was to work out a way to have a bracket or a clip that could attach to the top of the design so that it would swing open.

Students have nearly solved this issue - but again the roof is staying in place instead of swinging or clipping in place.   Currently the roof feature measures 80mm across and is 100mm long.   The print took thirty five minutes to complete, used 16g of filament and had an associated cost to print of $0.40g.

To ensure durability of the clip we made the decision to print both of these pieces of the farm building using the Bambu H2D printer.   Both designs will need to be re-engineered and adapted by the students.

3D Printed Stencils: Name Focus

 

Challenge: To produce a name stencil for a student that focusses on the name.

Background: This series of posts has been developing since the first tasks for the year.   In the initial stencils students focussed on basic shapes, provided by the main Tinkercad interface.  Following this students used scribble and then developed their names as part of the stencil.  We detected at this point that some of the students names could have been more of the star and therefore the final form has essentially gone back a step, with students creating a stencil with just their name as shown left.

We want to use this for an art based activity so have deliberately kept it simple.   These stencils were all designed by eight year old students using their iPads and Tinkercad independently - including the majority of students who were developing skills for the first time.

As noted we have used our Bambu H2D for this process, in allows us to confidently print 1mm wide PLA with minimal (ie no) waste.

Level of Difficulty: Low this is essentially a step backwards for the students for the purpose of having the name itself dominate more.  Having already completed this task and added numbers shapes and designs students were very clear and able to complete the process with minimal instruction.

Size:   The Lucy print shown measured 165mm by 140mm and was 1nm wide.   The Jules print was created using scribble hence the wavy lines this measured 180mm across and was 130mm high.

Cost/Price: Lucy cost $0.60c and used 23g of PLA filament.   Jules used $0.57c and used 24g of filament.  This was a standard PLA which we are currently sourcing for $30.00 per kilogram.

Timeframe:   The Jules print took thirty nine minutes to complete.   The Lucy print took forty one minutes to complete.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students: We have always had the intention of turning this project into some form of art based project where the stencil is the centrepiece.   The students are now going to take these design and apply a range of materials to them to look at the designs that are produced as a result (such as the example shown left).

Using Junior Stencils to create AR/VR Images

Using our iPads, the Tinkercad App and our stencil creations we created a series of images of the students work and then used the AR/VR button on the app to project the images into a variety of locations around the school and in the classroom.

While some of our students were experienced with their use of this app and the process for the majority of the classroom to experiment with for the first time.  To further clarify the amount of time that we had available was fifteen or so minutes before other school commitments required our attention.

This was possible because these designs had previously been created on Tinkercad and did not require any additional completion.  The designs were/are saved in the students folders in their accounts.

At this early stage we are allowing students to experiment with the process and look at their output, experiment with finishing and look at locations, ideas and contrasts (for instance students can alter the colour of their Tinkercad designs and adjust them to suit the background and the foreground etc.)

The AR/VR-ing of Tinkercad designs is like many other tasks something of a skill that students will develop, particularly over time.     Certain colour combinations work - as do certain iconic locations around the school (the swings are appearing numerous times).   Posing for image when there is nothing in front of you (such as a student trying to hold the design shown left) can take a little time to accurately place and adjust the size.

Given the timeframe and the introductory nature of the task to most of the students this would be considered a positive outcome, and more will be developed moving forward.