Junior Progressions: Earrings to Stationary Holder

 

Challenge: To show progression with a series of print to increase their difficulty and show development of ideas.

Background: This series of prints started with a earring design, which was printed in a pair (as seen far right in the photo). The student was then asked to think about how they could develop this ideas into a storage item.   They developed the star shape into a stationary holder.   He deliberately oversized the holes so that they could have multiple items held in each of the holes.   

The third iteration of this design featured additional storage in the shape of a rectangle that was inserted into the middle of the base.   The overall size of the shape was also increased at every step.

As shown left the next stage of the project is the decoration.  The spray painting of each of the shapes.

They were designed by a Y4 student (someone who is eight years old) who is developing his design skills in Tinkercad.   They were able to develop each of the designs without any teacher input.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - each of the designs in sequence is essentially based around the main interface shapes.   There could have been additional features added such as a personalisation of the design by including lettering or a name on the outside of the design.  We have been encouraging students to look at sinking the lettering into the design instead of having it stand out to ensure that it looks effective.

Timeframe: There are three distinct prints in this series.   The first is the earring which featured the shape that was to be developed.   This took thirty minutes.   The second or third prints was considerably longer.  The second (red) print was four hours and the largest print (the yellow print) was five and a half hours.

Size: Obviously there are three very distinct designs.  The earrings, which was the first stage is 45mm across and was 15mm thick.   The second container (which is red as shown above) was 60mm high and was 70mm across.   The final design included additional space for the pencil sharpener and was 100mm across.   Given the dimensions of what the student intended and the stability of the print this suited it perfectly.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: As noted the design could have potentially had some form of personalisation.  We have started looking at adding small button LED lights into designs, and this would have been a great project to complete this.