Advanced Teacher Led Projects Using 3D Printers

 

This project is a significant project which students have been working on for the past six months.   A small group has designed a marble maze, which will work in conjunction with a laser cut board.   The theme of the marble maze is Star Wars based.   The 3D Printer has been used to make the stormtrooper heads shown in purple on the design.  They have been printed translucent with an LED light mounted into each of them.   The centre of the Death Star in the middle of the maze was printed by using a 3D printer to create the model.    This is a significant school project (previous projects have included a working Pinball Machine, video located here - competition finals are live streamed each year you can view the 2022 finals here).  These designs were sourced from Thingiverse and are freely available public domain.

Turbine for Hydro Project - This was designed by a teacher as a prototype for the students to use.   We are engaging in a project related to hydro flow and water flow - so this instance was a working model to encourage the students.

A twenty eight hour print the turbine was to use with an axel with the idea it could be used with additional software or material (such as Arduino Kit) to measure the rate of water flow at a particular location.  By 3D printing the model the size of the turbine can be customised for a number of locations.   In this instance the turbine has proven to be surplus to requirements.   Because of this it is going to be used in conjunction with Sphero Robots to provide an opportunity to turn the robots into the motor to run a boat.   We are going to use technical lego to connect the turbine to a boat that is powered by the robot.  We will post further about both projects as they develop.