3D Printed Insect - Generic Example

 

Challenge: To produce a unique and individual insect for display for the school Pet and Calf Day 2026.   You can view a highlight of last years event by clicking on the link here.

Background: This project has been detailed numerous times during the last few days and weeks - a small reminder that its school holidays in New Zealand and our students are going to be back in the classroom for Term Fur, the last quarter of the year for 2026 in a week and a half.

In case of the students designs we've had butterflies, stick insects and a range of bugs which we've detailed via this blog as students are printing one for display with our art pieces.   The students are also going to AR/VR their design into a couple of different locations around the school, one with the bug in its natural habitat and the second where the bug is going to be super sized, this is being completed by using the iPad and the TInkercad App.

This example shown left has all of the features that the students were looking to feature in their designs from the correct number of legs, located in the right position, the antenna, the head, thorax and abdomen.  As we have stated with this task the students have been able to access third party creations although we have made it clear that we expect that the students have personalised, modified or adapted these in a way that takes some of the design component and changes it.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Bambu Blue PLA

Size: The print is one of the smallest in the series.  It measures 40mm long and is 20mm wide.  The print currently stands 30mm to the head and the antenna are another 10mm higher.

Cost:   The print uses 8g of PLA to complete the print giving it a price point of $0.16c.

Timeframe: To complete this print on the Bambu H2D the print took forty minutes to complete which included the six minute warm up time (so the project print was just over half an hour) this was completed using the regulation default settings.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The biggest thing would be for the students to modify this in a way that shows that they can manipulate an image or a design to put their own stamp more onto it.  One thing that has sprung to mind is that the bug could be produced, in some number and they could be included throughout the classroom and we could put up something up for someone who could find each of the designs.

3D Printed Butterfly - Large

 

Challenge: To produce a 3D printed insect for a art display (as per the school pet day day at school).

Background: As per the descriptions that we have previously posted on this blog this was another example that was created via the process and for the Pet Day purpose for display with the tin can art.

In the example here the student wanted to create a unique butterfly that fitted the intention of the task.   We have previously looked at Butterflies as part of the literacy work that we were doing related to insects and other sub groups.   The students read about the creatures, spent time looking at the characteristics and also investigated examples of butterflies around the world.   One of the key concepts that the student wanted to convey with the design was using Tinkercad to create and show symmetry between the wings.

This example was created by an eight year old student who was working independently to complete the task.

Resources used to complete this print: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu H2D, Bambu blue PLA.   

Level of Difficulty: Medium - the print needs some attention (see below).   All of the designs in this series have had a basis in another design or something similar.   In this instance the wings that are shown here are from the main Tinkercad interface.

Size: The print is larger than a number of butterflies that have also been produced in this series.   The print measures 120mm from wing tip to wing tip.   The wingspan is 90mm high.    The print has a height of 30mm.   The antennas are 30mm in length and have a width of 0.5mm making them extremely thin.

Cost/Price: The print uses 48g of PLA to complete the print.  This gave the print a price point of $0.98c.

Timeframe: The print using the Bambu H2D had a total print time of three hours and forty five minutes.   This is three times the length of printing time of other prints in this series.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The stars that are on the wings of the butterflies need to be refined.  They are currently not down completely on the wings, there is some rafting underneath them, although it is not obvious.  The antenna are extremely thing - they require a minimum of handling to ensure that they do not break off.   The reverse of the butterfly is where the attention for details could be significantly improved.   The base of the wings are blank, they could have a layer and some details on them.   The feet of the butterflies need to be adapted - they currently are stumps and have not translated well to physical printing.

There is one final consideration as well - we have experimented extensively with the AR/VR of the Tinkercad App and discovered that it is excellent at a base or ground level projection.   Where it can struggle at times is when you attempt to move the projected image off the ground into the air or up a particular object - this would be something to consider when looking at locations to place this object.

3D Printed Cartoon Ladybird

 

Challenge: For junior student to create an original insect, from scratch, using Tinkercad

Background: As regular visitors to this site will know we have one of our big school events incoming - our Pet Day for 2026.  When this takes place at the start of term four we have some class displays - one of which is a 'tin-can design' however with this design we wanted to showcase of the students creativity.  In this case our students have used their design skills in Tinkercad to create an insect that goes with the design.

We had a range of designs based on the students understanding of insects (which we had also been covering with our literacy work specifically our information report writing).  

 In this instance the student wanted to place the emphasis on the comedic value of the design making it cartoon like with its design.   The legs for the animal are in theory underneath and the wings are not separated as such.    Finally if you see the original design that was shown above the student was able to colour match the design, when the printing was completed the base colour was blue as shown, ideally the student would have had the option of a red or black base - or even a better solution would have been for the ability of the H2D Machine to print with a combination of two colours.     This has been demonstrated previously with our Warriors Coaster or last years Christmas decoration with the colours of Father Christmas.    One option that was not completed but this would have made an exceptional AR/VR projection object with a significant base and strong image.

Resourced used to create this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Bambu PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - as with the rest of the designs in this creation challenge the students were able to use their skills to create insects with a significant recognition factor.    

Size: The print measures 70mm across the front of the design and is 80mm long.   The design is 30mm high.

Cost/Price: The unit uses 30g of PLA filament to complete the print.  This has a price point of $0.58

Timeframe: This print took forty five minutes to complete.  This included a six minute timeframe for the printer to warm up and prepare for printing.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students: As noted there are a couple of design features that could be developed for the purpose of making it more realistic - the legs if they were added to the design would cause it to be somewhat unbalanced.     At this stage the size of the design is another slight issue - at 80mm and 90mm this is significantly bigger than its real-life version.

School Holidays In New Zealand!

 

Thank you for this visit to this blog.   This blog has been featuring work from students from our school since 2014, with its first posts taking place in 2015.

Since then we have been posting regularly to showcase the work from our students at a small state school, that is also an Apple Distringuised School in Auroa, South Taranaki.

Primarily we focussed on sharing work related to 3D Printing but as time has evolved we have also shared work using our laser cutter, sticker machine and more general work involved Tinkercad.   

We also love to showcase work from our school such as our full sized DDR Dance Dance Revoultion machine and its students created videos.     We also have our famous Pinball Machine which has been adapted and customised to feature the teachers, students and staff of our wonderful school.

If you would like to see a summary of events, ideas and creations from our school you can look at our website or visit Mr Bloor's page which showcases much of an incredible special work.

If you would like to contact or talk to the teacher who is responsible for the management of this page you can contact them directly via email at:

myles.webb@gmail.com

Next term we have our famous Auroa School Pet Day in the first week of school.  For this event we have numerous tie ins with our work and technology.  In the examples that you can see with this post one of our students has 3D Designed an original butterfly (which is part of our 3D Printed insect series).    

In each of these dioramas from the school pet day the student from our classroom have taken their design, their iPad and used the Tinkercad App to project the butterfly onto the different sets of the diorama.

This was a test - the student who used the butterfly had a timeframe to work with that was extremely short.   They spent under five minutes completing the task, and did not have time to edit either the pictures or the butterfly.    In the general progression from here both would be edited to alter their composition, depth, colour and details.

We will spend time early net term and be creating a series of challenges based around this process - if you want to view last years work you can click on the link to that work here.   During the next two weeks we have a range of projects that we will be highlighting.  Our students will be back on board in full from Monday 12th October 2026.

Laser Cut Art Frames: Pet Day 2026

Today is the final day of School at Auroa Primary School before we start our two week end of term break.   In Term Four, our last term for the year we have a whole lot of special events the first of which is on Thursday which is our annual Auroa School Pet Day.
 

We've detailed some of our art projects in the junior school and how we're using technology to enhance these - we wanted to look at the senior school and their use of our school laser cutter.

Our students have designed wooden frames which have been cut out on MDF.   The students have then decorated these frames using spray painting (to clarify that is supervised).   

There are a range available online for students to work with and there is also the potential for develop their own ideas.   Once these are completed and dried the students then use their iPads to take a digital image with a theme (which is usually farm based) and then mount the picture inside the frame.

Depending on the detail there is a slight variation with the printing time but we would confidently expect that none of the frames would take more than then minutes to complete.

The cost for the MDF is relatively cheap as the off cuts can be use for additional structures for dioramas and other purposes, not just as waste material which then doesn't have a purpose.

If you would like to see a summary of additional projects from our students using the laser cutter then you can click on the link here.

3D Printed Insect: Ant Example

 

Challenge: Student to complete and produce a unique and original design of an insect as a 3D Design, as an AR/VR projected creation and as a physical 3D Print.  Information report writing in term.

Background: This is the end of term project for our students to work in conjunction with our term focus on insects to produce an example that will compliment the art display that will make up part of our Pet Day 2026.  We have produced and published a number of examples that have come in this project task from our classroom.  We spent time for our literacy (writing) looking at the characteristics of insects in the form of our information reports.   This gave students ideas of the different sections and the language used to accurately describe each section of the insect.   

Initial designs from the students were then tested for viability and the balance between realism and a workable 3D print was addressed - an example shown left is the legs in this ant, while they are deliberately blocky in this instance to ensure that they were robust enough to remain in place when printing was complete.

Resources used to complete this print; iPad, Tinkercad App (for AR/VR), Bambu P1P, Bambu PLA - Blue.

Level of Difficulty: Medium this design is going to be refined and reimagined and will require some additional adaption of this design.   It has the recognition factor that we are looking after for the project however aspects of it need to change.

Size: The body of the ant is 40mm long and the sections were 10mm high.   The ant is 20mm high and the antenna are a further 20mm high.

Cost/Price: This print used 6.7g of PLA to complete the print.   This meant that this print cost $0.13c to produce.

Timeframe: To complete the print the printer was operating for thirty three minutes.    This also included a six minute time for the P1P to warm up.

This is the example of the same project being AR/VR into a location to make it 'outstanding'.   In this example the ant has been 'super-sized' and place onto the school field.   The 'gian't ant also had the student adding a naming font behind the ant, which can be seen in the screenshot and is red.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students; As noted the ant needs further refinement.  The first pair of the legs need to be brought back into the abdomen of the ant.   There has been some parts of the face/mask of the ant that require more details.

3D Print School - #Tinkercadhunt 2026 Starting Edition

 

We've been posting online for a while now, if you've been following this blog for a while you will be aware that we now had our most prolific posting year ever as we are posting everyday for a calendar year - but we also starting posting on a semi-regular basis with our first printing from 2014 appearing here the following year.

Overtime we've shifted away a little bit from how this site was first envisaged as we now feature a range of material produced on our laser cutter, our sticker machine or virtual pinball or our amazing DDR Step Master machine.

What it has also allowed us to do is revisit some of the activities that have proven popular or successful with students in the past.   Last year we created a range of prints that we titled 'Tinkercadhunt' when we used the Tinkercad App, 

This year our Pet and Calf Day is taking place in the first week of next term, we are about to break for a two week holiday and when we return in the first week we will be holding that special event.

For the different art tasks one of which is the diorama.  In these instances the backgrounds can be used for Tinkercad Projection.   If you look closely at the photographs that are shown with this post you should be able to recognise one of the original insects that our students have been working on.

In these first steps the nine year old student who has been working on this task has had a pre-arranged figure and had to work it into a range of backgrounds without the benefits of being able to colour match or adapt design to camouflage it amongst a colour matched background.

Typically when projecting onto a surface with AR/VR tends not to work too well when height is involved.   In this instance left the insect can clearly be seen in a position that defies gravity but again this is the student experimenting with a range of backgrounds at short notice and matching the background to the object (which is in this case a AR/VR student generated insect ant.

There will be significant amounts of media related to this project and an updated slideshow to follow.

All these examples were completed independently by a nine year old student within a ten minute timeframe visiting the classroom where the dioramas were on display.