3D Printed Junior Tinkercad Progression Design

 

Challenge: To produce a label that is suitable for a adult to use to attach to a gear bag, designed, reshaped and redesigned by a junior.

Background: One of the things that we like to do with the 3D Printer is to try and get the students using Tinkercad and revising, remodelling and improving their design until it has changed significantly or served its purpose.   An example with the process, involving a seven year old (Y3) student designing independently without the input or supervision of a teacher.

The task was straight forward and relatively easy, involving creating a tag for a bag.  We actually took a photograph the cow tag (shown above left, yellow) and used Markup to draw the design.  This gave us a starting point for the student to take the design and bring it into Tinkercad.  We also had the object to refer to the student to ensure that the size was correct.   While he did use the measurement aspect of Tinkercad clearly when the student created prototype (shown above) was compared to the original object in terms of size it was clearly not the correct dimensions - It was 60mm long and 30mm high.

The second design, when revised came from the feedback that was created for person who wanted to use it.   The tag design was more clearly evident and also the top of the design, with a narrow neck for the first one wasn't considered robust enough for a high use object.  Again as can be seen by the example shown left, the dimensions again were not as intended and therefore the shape was requested to be redesigned.   The student was again able to redesign the shape - it should be mentioned that the redesign here is very basic as the student is grouping different designs with lettering and the basic shape with a hole inserted - three basic steps.

The final form of the design was then created by the student.  Again using the tag as the guide this produced a result which finally reflected the dimensions that were originally intended.

The final completed version is as shown left.  In this example the dimensions are correct, while not exactly perfect these were close enough in the range to ensure that the person the design was intended for was happy.

Size: The final design measured 60mm across and was 80mm high.  This design was 5mm thick which significantly allowed a number of the final designs to be published.

Timeframe: Forty five minutes to complete the print.  This allowed multiple versions of the same print to be printed.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: This print was able to be reshaped and redesigned several times and was shown to the student as a way of having it in their hands to ensure that they understood the changes that needed to be made.   Tinkercad is perfect for junior students to use in this instance to work independently on design - we didn't AR/VR this example before printing it but of course this is something else that could have been done.