3D Printed Money Box - Y3 student design

Challenge: For a seven year old student to create something that was interesting and challenging independently.

Background: After the first bunch of activities had been completed by the class I pushed out to them a challenge to create something that was functional, with a purpose or a use.    One of the youngest students in the classroom, who has already had some great design ideas produced this coin or money box and brought it for consideration for printing.   The thing that is perhaps most of note is that the student who has had only two or three weeks of Tinkercad work and tutorials which are student created and driven,  and working several sessions independently.   

Again this design is following a student creation via the Tinkercad Classroom design/set up.   The student has used their iPad to create this object, including creating the lettering, linking and inserts without any input from older students.   Older students did assist with the spray painting of the design - which originally was gold, however the student was able to pick some additional colours which they could have their item decorated with.

The student is being encouraged to continue to design and come up with ideas and it is our intention to ensure that these designs and actioned on so that the student can continue to make and create.

We have previously had a range of containers or boxes designed for the purpose of making money.  Some of these from 2016 include the ability to handle notes and other examples can be located by clicking here.

Size: The coin container measured 75mm across the top and was 60mm high.   The insert for the coin slit (see below) was 50mm deep from the top of the container. This was a first attempt and there is intended to be some discussion and testing before these dimensions would be examined.

Timeframe: Eight hours, although the robust nature of the container limited its ability to hold money and also meant that retrieval needs to be examined.  If these were identified and problem solved then the corresponding dimensions and print times would be greatly reduced.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - this as a basic design works extremely well however further refinement and development is required for the project to be considered successful.   This potentially is going to be a real challenge for this student, however they have already shown themselves to be really capable.

What we would do differently/next steps for students: The student concerned has already identified the next step with this design, that they did not hollow out the container on the inside for the purpose of storage, or as another student has suggested to her, she had not considered a way to successfully remove the money once that it has been put into the container.   Both of these aspects of the design will require a considerable amount of alteration of the design for it to be successful.