Y3/4 3D printed student bookmarks

'Sophie' Bookmark with rafting

Challenge: to produce a working bookmark suitable for a student to use.
Background: Previously at Auroa Primary School in a post from last year the students had created a bookmark as part of the Y34/4 STEM program at Auroa Primary School, a link to the original post is here.  This year the program was repeated, for an hour a week on Fridays and a group of students repeated the task.
Task: For the students to design an original bookmark using Tinkercad and then print.  The students are 8 and 9 year old students at school so this design was their first prints.
Level of Difficulty: Low - however this group of students was young and it was their first.

Issues: Once the students started adding detail to the base some of this detail was floating or did not fit well with the basic material - which caused some phantom air printing, resulted in failed prints.
Size: the 'Sophie' bookmark featured here measured 17cm by 4cm with a 5mm base.   The 'Willa' bookmark was 12cm by 7cm with a depth of 5mm.
Time fame: 'Sophie' was three hours and 'Willa' was four - however the first was printed on the Ultimaker 2+ and the latter on an Ultimaker 2 so some variation was expected.
Process: The students designed the projects directly into Tinkercad which was then converted into Cura for the printing on the 3D printers.
Reflection: As a short and practical introductory task for the students this allowed students to create their first projects.  Refinement and reflection should allow for a degreeing of fine tuning to ensure that the finish project meets the brief.

3D Printed Christmas Labels

'Mila' label prior to rafting removal

Challenge: To create a label suitable for the naming of a Christmas present.
Background: This task developed organically from the previous task (which is still a work in progress involving 3D Printed Christmas decorations.  As part of this task while awaiting filament and brainstorming potential ideas about other projects students in the classroom came up with the idea of creating labels to individualise presents.   For these students (Y5/6 students - 10 years old) it would be the first time designing original prints on the 3D printers.
Task: To create a label for the identifying/naming of a Christmas present.  Students needed to consider ways to attach the label to the gift and personalise it (with the persons name).

Above: 'Denise' star label

Level of Difficulty: Low - this was the students first individually designed print attempt in most cases.
Issues: In the first two completed examples - 'Mila' print neglected to have an easy attachment location to secure it to the gift (student could potentially have inserted a hole) the 'Denise' star needed to have a more robust base for the name part of the design and potentially the star aspect could have been thicker, however in both of these cases the students should progress from the original design and refine it to meet the brief successfully.
Size: the 'Mila' print was 4cmx4cmx2cm (although the height could easily have been adjusted to 1cm).   The 'Denise' print was 11cmx11cmx1cm - although as noted it potentially could have been increased to make it more robust).
Timeframe: Approximately two hours for both prints (with adjustments in height to 'Mila')
Process: These were designed directly in Tinkercad by the students concerned before being converted to Cura and downloaded for 3D Printing.
Reflection: The tasks is relatively straightforward with the potential for an entire class to produce models/designs in a straight forward manner in a relatively short print time.  This was an introductory task for the classroom that followed a natural progression from the 'Christmas Decorations' print and in many cases featured the students first individual designs.  Further refinement and improvement would be expected as the students bounce ideas off one another and continue to print.

Christmas Decorations Part Two

Above: Christmas Bell 

Details of project update: The students are currently working through a series of designs that fit the 'Christmas Tree Decoration' brief.   The final designs are going to be printed with a Glow-in-the-dark filament.    The students were instructed to produce something that was individualised the print.  The first prints in this series have yet to make this brief and this is being discussed.
We have Glow-in-the-dark filament arriving shortly and at that point will be running the final prints.
  
The bell to the left consists of a two hour print on a regular setting that follows the format described in this process.  We have used this as a discussion points with the class - does it meet the brief? What else needs to be done? How could students modify it further to add to the complexity and detail of the prints.

3D Printed Christmas Decorations

Silhouette of decoration selected for printing

Challenge: For the students to create original Christmas decorations suitable for hanging from a Christmas tree.    Students to personalise them by adding their name to the decorations or the name of the person that they want to gift them too.
Background: In this instance we were looking for a follow up activity to the 'Cookie Cutter' design task that would combine a task that would be realistic for the class to complete individual projects and they would be further able to develop the skills that they had learnt following the steps - students were to be given no assistance in converting a file to an SVG file, as this was to reinforce their learning from the previous lesson.

Above: Converted to Cura Software

Task: Students to design from scratch a decoration, selecting an image or silhouette and then converting this from a screenshot into an SVG file which could be then loaded into Tinkercad (see previous lesson).
Level of Difficulty: Low - students were given no assistance to complete the task as it was in essence a repeat of previous task, however the addition of the personalisation was discussed as well as the process of how to complete it.

Above: Print in progress

Issues: This is a project that will will result in 25 prints from students and this should reinforce the work the students have been completing - there will be considerable variation from each project although ultimately the goal is for each student to complete a piece.
Size: As above there is considerable variation in size.  We will be completing a slideshow that features all of the prints with details about each of them relating to size - the example in this case was 5cm in height and 10cm in length.
Timeframe: As mentioned - the 'sleigh' print shown in this post was a 90 minute print on normal setting.
Process: Students selected an image that met the expected criteria of being a silhouette outline.  Students then converted the file to an SVG format which allowed the file to be uploaded into Tinkercad.  Once it was checked for suitability the print was then downloaded for 3D Printing and converted into Cura Software suitable for printing on the Ultimaker 2.
Note: a Google Slide of this process will be completed shortly that will feature a number of prints in this series/task.  While the original prints are being completed with a regular filament the finished products will be completed with a Glow-In-The-Dark Filament.

3D Printed Connectors

Above: connector with aluminum insert

Challenge: To create larger objects, using the 3D Printer to create connectors to go at the corners to ensure that the large structure could be build.  In this instance the ultimate goal is to produce a hydroponic set up for the students.
Background: The teachers and students were looking at additional design tasks to extend the students.  This project is a significant one, that is being drive by using the 3D printers to create connectors to allow the build to progress with aluminum pipes which has been custom cut for the project.
Task: Some of the old filament from the first 3D Printer (2014) was used along with additional prints.   The size and dimension of the aluminum piping determined the width and the size of the connection.  As the design was based around a large rectangle shape the connectors needed to have three links on each of them.

Level of Difficulty: Low - the connectors dimensions were determined by the aluminum piping and its dimensions so it was obvious what was required.  Various tests on the width and the fit of the connectors were made to ensure that there was a close fit, although its anticipated that the final version will require some form of permanent bonding.
Issues: None - although the ultimate success of the project will depend on the additional pieces this is the first time that custom made connectors for a project have been 3D printed.
Size: 4cm x 6cm x 4cm.  Dictated by the role of the connectors and the size of the aluminum piping used.
Timeframe: Multiple connectors were printed on the bed at each time to ensure as many as possible were produced, resulting in an overnight print (which would mean individual pieces would be produced in a four hour print).
Process: The students used Tinkercad to produce the files which were converted for the printing.  The older filament, which is dating back to the end of 2014 was able to produce a workable print.  Tinkercad/Cura were utilized again, as was the Ultimaker 2+ which was able to produce better quality prints than the others produced by the Ultimaker 2.  There are considerable prints to follow in this series and they will be updated in posts to come on this site, including assembled pictures of the piping.