Completed Project: Ooshie Stand

 

Those of you who are regular visitors to this blog while have been following the progress of the five tier 'Ooshie Stand'.   This has been sourced from Thingiverse.   To hold the entire run of the designs each level consists of eight holding spots - five levels allowed the entire run of forty designs to be displayed.

The decision has been made to spray paint the entire design in a single colour (which is purple as shown left).   The design was completed as noted in stages and each section was able to be screwed into the section above it.

This allowed the design to be put together successfully for a price point of under $10.00.   It also has the bonus of allowing the forty different characters to be transported without them falling off the design as each is held in place by an individual peg.

This is another example of using a pre-made design or feature and creating a interest and design for discussion and sharing with adults and also students.

Versa Studio Sign Maker - T-Shirts

 

We've posted many times about our senior students and their DPE (Design Production Engineering) program).   A recent group of students have completed their rotations and amongst this group of students we have a group completing their digital media projects with our amazing Digital Teacher, Mr Bloor.

These students have been working with our Versa Roland Sign Maker to complete their own T-Shirts.   Once the designs have been completed (an example shown left0 the sign maker then produces the image that is pressed onto the t-shirt.

It allows the students to be creative making something that can be highly personalised combining images and photographs of the students into a collage, scene or theme.

The other work that students are completing is the transfer mug.   While we have produced the entire sticker/illustration in the past and then applied it to the mug with our hot press.  However we have made a pivot change with this that we have ordered the stickers from a third party which allowed us to to combine multi colours and also create a sticker that is more robust than we are able to produce with our current technology.

There are a number of examples of this work on our blog - you can use the search bar, top right, to look for our senior technology projects.    We typically tag our Year Seven and Year Eight projects with the 'DPE' tag-line. 

If you have any questions regarding our senior technology program you are more than welcome to contact us and we can put you directly in contact with the teachers responsible for this part of our curriculum program.

School Gift NZAIMS Games 2026

 

Challenge: To produce a unique gift for other schools when competing in a special event.

Background: This project has featured already a number of times.   In its original guise it was created by a then eight year old student as a 'filler' option to fill up some of the space created by Market Day 2025.

Based around the success of this print we also used a number of times as a gift or a token to other schools or educators or visitors to our school.    We are attending the 2026 NZAIMS Games in Tauranga as Auroa Primary School are competing in this years Girls Basketball Tournament.

For the purposes of the tournament we wanted something that would be both memorable and striking.   Our design of the cyclops which we are also making available can be seen here.

We have made the decision to take the original design which was 70mm across and increased it to 200mm across.

Resources used to complete the print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Glow-in-the-dark Filament: Bambu Brand.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this was originally completed by an eight year old student who worked independently on the design.   As we have described many times in the past this kind of basic activity is completed as an introductory tasks for students.

Size: The novelty print is oversized to create a 'talking point'.   By choosing to print as glow-in-the-dark filament the print had an extra layer of 'talking point'.    By choosing to do both although it had a slight increase in the price point it was not significant.

Cost/Price: To produce this unit the print uses 65g of filament to complete.  This has a price point of $1.31.  There was no waste plastic produced by this print.

Timeframe: To complete this print the H2D took two hours on the regular settings.

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

Roland Versa Signmaker: Enviro Group Signs

 

Recently Auroa Primary School has begun an overall of what is being created and carried out with regards to our environmental work.   

One of the key aspects of this is sorting the rubbish that is collected by the students at our school.  To this regard we wanted the students to be more actively sorting the waste material that they create.

While we were able to gain colour coded rubbish bins for this process one of the issues that we wanted to ensure was that the right waste would go into each bin.   To do that we turned to one of the pieces of technology at our school, the Roland Versa Sign Maker.   We have a dedicated sub-page to this machine and the way that we have used it on this blog, you can click on the link here or you can search in the search box on our blog and use the keywords 'sign maker'.

Each of the four bins has a different sticker which has been placed on the top of the bin but also the sides.  The design for the sticker was created by our middle school students - Year 5 and Year 6 students who are ten and eleven years old.   You can convert essentially any .PNG file into a sticker (and younger students can of course use apps such as Pic Collage as a creation tool) and then print it.

The stickers are durable, waterproof and have an extended shelf life.   We have used this machine to produce the decals for some of many major machines around Auroa School such as our Pinball Machines or Step Master Machine.

Starlink Aerial: Completed Project

Over the last few days we have been printing the component parts for a Starlink Aerial.    This was a project that was completed for a parent from school.  We did not design this piece of engineering we were able to locate it via Thingiverse.

This is one of a number of online sites with free share files, design and ideas.   While we occasionally select projects for engaging the students from a creative standpoint.    In this instance this design had a range of parts that linked together and locked into place - and while the eventual assembly of the final product requires some additional parts (screws, bolts) the part sits nicely at present and is able to interact with each part and clearly can be manipulated and turned into position.

The four parts of the print took a maximum of two hours (the base) and the other three parts that form the extended aerial part of the design took either one and a half or one hours so the total print time for the aerial is four and a half hours.   The print came in in terms of PLA cost at just under $8.00 to complete.

Helping Others with 3D Printing Projects

 

We've been continuing to use Tinkercad as a tool to mentor other students, in this case our Y4 class has been working with students who are Y2/3 and designing with them, explaining how something can work and then looking at completing the other class rooms very first 3D Prints.

As we've posted many times before prints like the one shown left can be achieved quickly and involve a quick design process which can be quickly switched to a 3D Design virtually (via design tools like the Tinkercad Apps AR/VR feature) and into a physical 3D Print.   In this case the name badge is a thirty minute print that measurses 110mm long is 70mm high and 5mm wide.   To enhance the design - 

The circle and one of the stars have been removed completely and the name and the second star have been changed from a outward facing design into a hole which is then introduced into the base.  Obviously two have partially gone through while two have gone through fully allowing the tag to be attached to a bag or other object.

This design was created by a seven year old with a nine year old providing assistance - there was no teacher input into the process, just at the end where the teacher completed the print.

As a run we tend to shy away from completing pre-made designs as the emphasis is on our reworking and developing original student prints.   There are exceptions however such as when a new student wants to have something completed or we have a problem solving situation.

In the past for instance we have offered up examples of our printing to local businesses and produced a range of items for their use.    

In this instance one of the students in class wanted to produce a satellite receiver for a Star Link system.   We were able to locate a full complete set o of components from a free online site (Thingiverse) and have undertaken to print the four pieces that form the basis of the aerial mount.  Each component part has been designed already we are simply printing out the output and the parents we assume will put together.  This in turn should lead to a range of ideas for prints and designs.

If you 'search this blog' using the box in the top right hand corner then you can use the search word 'Thingiverse' to discover projects that go back using this site back the past several years.   The same can also be said if you use the search word 'badge' or keyring as it is one of the fundamental tasks that our students begin design with.

3D Printed Maze: Challenge Engineering

 

Challenge: To plan a 3D Maze with an entry, exit and a number of challenges that need to be solved.

Background: This series of prints have been detailed a number of times, starting with the a basic design which progressed to revision and reworking.  The challenge then put to the students was to develop an engineering 'block' or problem that needed a way to solve it.  In this instance shown left the start of the maze in the top right leads to the centre.  Here the ball must be flipped over the jump, however it needs to avoid landing or falling down either hole and also the dead end the goes to the right.

Once this obstacle is completed the maze is essentially solved so the student was considering a ledge or something similar to increase the difficulty of the challenge.

Resources to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Bambu Green/Lime PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium/High.  This was completed by one of the top design students in the classroom who wants to expand the challenge and have more 'engineering' challenges for the task.

Size: The print measures 140mm long at the front and was 120mm long/deep.    The print had a floor that was 5mm thick and the highest walls shown in the picture (left) were 20mm.

Cost/Price: To complete the print the printer used 90g of PLA to finish.  This had a price point of $1.90 to complete the print for this.

Timeframe: To complete the print the printer was running for two hours and twenty eight minutes.  As a flat printed project there was no waste PLA.

What we would do different/y/Next steps for the students: The area of the maze high lighted left was an example that we could use to allow other students to consider what they might have included in their own designs.  You can see the jump clearly left with the two holes that are just the other side of jump.

This has led to some creative discussions in the class about the different ways in which students could create traps, problems or ways in which the maze could be manipulated to move the ball past this point.

Again as we have stated we are not going to print the entire run of designs in the classroom we are looking for examples that we can AR/VR and then progress forwards with limiting 3D Printing of selective prints.