Minecraft Figure: 3D Printed Witch

 

Challenge: For junior student to use Tinkercad to create an original Minecraft inspired design.

Background: The student concerned wanted to create a recognisable Minecraft Figure.  They had previously designed 'The Villager' which was a print that we featured on this blog, in March.   The student identified another figure that they felt they would be able to replicate and the shape of the figure when it was 3D Printed would have a high recognition factor.

The student was able to create the figure independently using their cohort two skills and able to present it to the teacher as complete.  The student is an eight year old student, experienced with Tinkercad in class this year and last years. 

Resources Used: iPad, Tinkercad, Bambu H2D, Regular PLA.

Level of Difficulty: High.  This is a small scale print in terms of size (see below) however there are layers to it and all of the different aspects of the design need to work in unison with each other.   The other issue is that other students gave feedback to the student about the degree of the recognition factor.

Size: This figure is 30mm wide, is 80mm high and is 20mm deep.  As it stands the purpose of the print needs to be refined and this would adapt the size of it.

Cost/Price: As it stands at the moment the print uses 16g of PLA to complete and the price point for this is $0.40.

Timeframe: The print using the Bambu H2D took fifty three minutes to complete.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students: There are various possibilities moving forward, depending on what the student decides.  There have been a number of versions of Minecraft prints and projects created by our students this term.  You can look at other examples by clicking on the 'search' box in the top right hand corner of this blog.  If you want to see a summary post of our ideas you can click on the link to the summary here.

3D Printed Mathematical Resources - Revised

 

Challenge: For the students to independently create, test and evaluate a Mathematical resource that can be used in the learning of times tables.

Background: As part of the structured Mathematics approach at our school (and nation wide) we have certain benchmarks that we would like our students to achieve.   One of these is to be able to recall a range of times tables basic fact accurately.   One of these is the four time tables.

In this challenge we tasked students with creating a learning tool or a learning task that would reinforce this learning.   As detailed on this blog on Friday the student started by creating a design - but in the initial printing and design the answers were joined to the question.   When the student received feedback and thought about this she came to the conclusion that she needed to have seperate question and answer tiles and also she wanted to include the entire range.

She created the second version of her design and wanted to have a location for it - in this case a mini whiteboard.   This should lean into the student using some form of simple magnets to be able to ensure each of the tile stays in place.

As it stands at the moments the tiles are also a single colour - the student has stated that they would be more effective if they were combined colours or the answer tile was a seperate colour.

The student has been able to assemble this quickly although has stated that they are going to review the size of the tiles.   The question tiles measure 40mm by 20mm are are currently 2mm wide and the answer tiles are 20mm by 15mm.   While these are serviceable for the task the student is in the process of reconsidering them as they are a little small.

Resource used to complete the project: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu (H2D) printer, regular dark blue Bambu PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - there is some refining to do but the student has the concept, the idea and has worked to complete it independently.  They have started play testing the game already to think about some rules (such as completing the times tables before the time on a clock runs out).

Size: As noted the current set up includes twelve tiles for the questions that are 40mm by 20mm by 2mm and twelve answer tiles that are 20mm by 15mm by 2mm.   Potentially these are too small.   However the student wanted to fit the entire run of prints on a single work plane.

Cost/Price:   To complete the print of the tiles the printer used 38g of regular PLA this had a price point of $0.98c.  Obviously if as intended the designs is upscaled in size their will be adjustments to this figure.

Timeframe: The print using standard settings took one hour and twenty three minutes to complete.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: Potentially this would be a viable candidate for a colour match/dual colour print.   We have spoken about the size before making the tiles larger.  This would also have potential to have some of the times table removed.  This design has the full range of four times tables but in the classroom there are a number of student not requiring every tile.  We could also produce a 'focus' pack of identified times table questions that we would want mastery of.

3D Printed Robot

 

Challenge: For student to create a unique design that would fit into a lego scene.    

Background: This design came from the lego challenge however the student concerned felt that the design would be best suited for something else.  They weren't sure what they wanted to do exactly but they felt that by increasing the scale and size of print would elevate it into a different kind of print.

The student spent time making sure that they worked on the form of the design - details like the hands.  A sense of humour came through in the sense of having a smaller figure in the head of the robot as the controller.   This is a removable figure and has potential for development with additional figures potentially being swapped in.   The figure itself has the potential for significant development as we typically ask our student: what is the purpose of this print? what could we use it for?

The design in this case was created by a cohort two student who worked independently on it in his own time - there was no teacher input other than the teacher printing the project.

Resources used to complete the project: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu Printer (H2D) and regular purple PLA from Bambu.

Level of Difficulty: Medium/High.   Although this design is going to get more complicated in the future it is already relatively complicated and would rate as one of the more complicated designs from the students.

Size: The student started off at a not lego/lego scale and then increased it significantly.   The print as it stands measures 100mm across is 190mm high and is 30mm wide.  The command centre at the top was 30mm across and 20mm high,   The command figure inside was 25mm high and 10mm wide.

Cost/Price:   The print uses 147g of filament.  This has a price point of  $3.70 to produce.     There was some limited PLA rafting of this design.

Timeframe: On standard default settings this had a print time of four hours and eighteen minutes.

What we would differently/Next Steps for the student: We have already talking about what next or what could be developed to engage with this design.  As it stands at present the design needs a defined purpose rather than being limited to a novelty item.  There is the possibility that it could be used for storage etc but then a dedicated storage area needs to be developed.   The design stands however it is a bit top heavy so perhaps some stability could be look at.

Laser Cut Halloween Box - Maker Design Lab

 

One of the challenges for the DPE students is ways to unpack designs created by using the laser cutter.  In our tech time students have a range of prototypes that they can unpack and then design their own version of.  An example of this is the 'Laser Cut Halloween Box'.   This item is located here on the Maker Design Lab.  

On this site there is a full list of the equipment required, all the different parts etc.

The laser cut design measures 100mm across and 70mm across the design is 100mm high.

The design when the laser cut was completed was then put together with a combination of wood glue, sandpaper (for the finish).   In the example provided online the stain has been used to made the cut look more finished - our design has not.

While the design has a high decorative value it should be noted as MDF laser cut the design needs to be handled with a bit of care (ie it would be in trouble if it was dropped.   There would be potential to use a 3D Printer to design feet or legs.

The design was completed using 3mm MDF.   The site where it was located from has a full design page devoted to this print, its process and completion - detailing every stage of the process.

Our students have used boxes like this Monster Box as part of our 2025 School Market Day.

AR/VR Design Creating 'Not Lego: Lego'

 

We blogged recently about the store purchased 'Not Lego: Lego' that  had been created as a set for a figure.

Our first challenge involving this set was for the students to create a figure that could fit into this scene.   The figure needed to be a 'Lego' like figure.  You can see our post about that here.   Next steps from here was to manipulate the figure and combine it with a pic collage figure as shown here.

Finally we applied a challenge for the students to create a piece of furniture that could fit in with the scene.   This is slightly more complicated than the figure as the idea for the students to 'hide' something that replicates the scene so much that it appears to fit (as opposed to the cartoon figures of several of the 'Lego' designs).  

We have previously used this process in a number of ways - most notably with our #tinkercadhunt challenge from last year.   That post is linked here when we used our Lamb and Pet Day school dioramas to place an original figure within a location.

In this instance if you view the two screenshots from the students iPad the additional added design should be obvious which is the table in the top right hand corner.  In the first instance the student had a design they felt that fit with the scene but when reviewing the creation with other students realised that the size was too small and attracted attention as a result of that.   The student also was not sure about the colour scheme.

The timeframe to create this was just a few minutes - the 'Not Lego' set had been made up previously, the students design was quickly created, and they wanted to add some items on the table to distract the line of sight.   The student was thrilled with this (non 3D Printing result).   We have also previously published entire slideshows of 'Non Printing 3D Printing Ideas' that involve Tinkercad and an iPad.  You can view that slideshow here - we will be updating it shortly for this years additions.

3D Printed Mathematical Resources

 

Challenge: To design a resource that will help the student with their learning of times tables.

Background: The Mathematics program that our students are currently working through is at the point that the students are looking to memorise or learn their time tables.   To assist with this we talked to the students about the way that they might make a simple game that would reinforce the knowledge required.

One of the aspect identified was for students to have recall and memory for basic facts - times tables.   The student concerned here was a cohort two student who had been designing since last year - they were able to produce this prototype with their iPad in a few minutes when they evaluated it for size, viability and usefulness.   The student wanted to make adjustments immediately on seeing the design, hence the drawing in vivid on the bottom of the two tiles.

The reworked design is going to look like the example shown left.  The student has decided to split the question and answer tile and print them separately.  They also have increased the distance between the equals symbol and the answer.

Resources Used: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu H2D and regular PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this student is confident and know that they could easily design this with their skillset the only question would be the refining when the print was completed.

Size: Version one of this project as shown above has a tile that is 70mm long 30mm high and is 5mm wide.  Since the prototype was developed the student has made the decision to go with a split (as shown) although the original dimensions will remain in place.

Cost/Price:   A single print of the first print in the series (as shown) uses 12g of PLA to complete the print and has a price point at this size of $0.30.    There is no change with the upgrade.

Timeframe: To complete the print as a single question and answer tile has a timeframe of twenty minutes.   Subsequent redesign has not affected this time and can be used to determine how many questions need to be focussed on.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students:  We have made our own resources in the past, including examples that we have shared on this blog.   This example is a starting point for a range of designs that will be able to target something specific to our classroom.

Combing Tinkercad + Pic Collage Step Two and Three

 This weeks classroom challenge for the seven and eight year olds at Auroa Primary School has been using AR/VR technology in using Tinkercad to AR/VR students design - and then we have 'app smashed'.

In this example shown left you can see a screenshot from a students iPad.   The design that is present in the figure is the original Tinkercad design.   Using the students iPad and the Tinkecad App a single button allows the projecting of the image to nearly any location and nearly any size.

The student has super-sized this design so it towers over a local building (the Auroa Cricket Club) and the Auroa Primary School Field.   The student concerned is a cohort one student who is eight years old who worked on this design independently without any teacher input.   The design brief was to create a original 'lego inspired' figure for our 'lego - not lego'  design and this is the second step in the process.     While this design is creative and amusing.

This is the same figure with a Pic Collage Filter applied (which in this case is the Autumn figure) it has changed the image background significantly and turned it from an interesting one into something more creative.   The process for this was to apply the app and use the 'Magic Camera' AR/VR filter.    It then produced the finished shown left.

The student now needs to consider the trimming or the editing of the photo and then reintroduce the altered image back into a photo editing program before it is displayed on the wall or as part of a digital display.

This is a further example shown left.  In this example the student created a frying pan as part of the objects to be placed inside the 'lego-not lego' task.   The design took the students under ten minutes to create and then project into the kitchen setting.   Once this had been completed the student experimented with different pic collage filter to look at what would manipulate the image to produce the most striking image and settled on the image shown left.

Again the final step is to manipulate the image again in photo-editing software to complete the task.