2023 - School Market Day: Y4 Business.

Y4 Students Market Day Project: Articulated Toy Dogs

Previously as noted on this blog we have a school market day upcoming where we are inviting members of the community to come to our school and purchase innovative products made by our students using the technology that they have available.

We shared a number of prints and the process last year which were featured on this blog (and have the label 'market day'.   For this year we have a junior classroom that is the focus - so the products that are created have been made by a nine year old.

Challenge: To create an innovative Market Day Business.

Background: As detailed above.  Articulated animals have proven to be extremely popular as the size can be controlled and the student can potentially have an interest in them.   While there are a number of freely available downloads of a range of animals the innovative part of the process has moved onto the students being able to design, create and manufacture these animals themselves rather then relying on available designs of others.

The student in this case was able to receive guidance from a Y8 student at our school who has created media including a full presentation showing the entire process from a flipped perspective (including video creations and a step by step guide how to produce any animal by following the process.

This Y4 student wanted to create a unique flexible animal for her business.  She used Tinkercad as a design CAD software and used her iPad for the manipulation.   She was able to source a SVG file for the silhouette - and the linking for the animal came via a ball and socket join that she had created on Tinkercad.

The learning process was not initially successful - the first designs didn't feature linking to the entire shape, as shown left, when the parts of the animal were removed from the printing plate and they fell apart.  This briefly had the student contemplating creating a jigsaw puzzle based on the parts that she was making, however she was redirected as she had set herself a goal.

She also researched her favourite dog and learnt how to QR Code for her packaging.   This dog was then redesigned to ensure that the linking was correct.   The student then started to produce a variety of them and investigated the spray painting of them to complete the presentation.  We also were able to identify the animal as being able to be produced in a reasonable timeframe - which allowed the student to start testing the design in terms of manipulating and playing with it.

The dogs (completed, as shown left) consist of the four main linked parts.   They are currently measuring 70mm long and 50mm tall.   They are 10mm thick which allows for a reasonable strength to them.

Currently on the Snapmaker default settings we have the print coming in at just over two hours (each, although we can of course load multiple dogs onto a print run) and the student has set a price of $2.00 per dog to cover the cost and make a small profit.   (This money is being raised for the school and is reflective of the cost and the student not looking to make a huge profit with the process and item).

The student is being extended by developing and refining their CAD design skills (using Tinkercad) and the Snapmaker 3D Printer.  They are using Pic Collage to design packaging and QRstuff.com to manufacture the QR Code.   Given how successful this process and project has been there is no more refining it or creation of it as it has been extremely successful.