Encouraging the use of 3D Printers and other technology in the Classroom by sharing examples and good practise - from a classroom of wonderful junior school students in New Zealand.
While we use it for 3D Designing, which we then print using our Snapmaker printers as we have mentioned in the past we have three operating machines in the school, a school of two hundred students. This means realistically we cannot at all times print designs for students.
In this instance as we have detailed on this blog previously our students have used their Tinkercad designs to AR and VR their creations to create a context when they can make or create something and display it in a different way. Two icons that are available from the main Tinkercad interface, as shown in the top left.
We recently identified a Dolls House, that was destined to be thrown out and we wanted to look at the viability of restoring it using our technology and then making it available to our junior school students.
After the cleaning and the wiping down of the house the students started to examine it, in more detail. The main base wood that has been used to construct the house was chipboard, and there are parts of the house where it has been wet, causing it to loose structure.
While the students working on this wanted to keep as much of the original house as possible this needs to be balanced with turning it into something that is functional and useable.
The senior students sourced some images of vintage houses for inspiration and begun the process of using Sketch Up to start to design the sides for the house.
Blending in the new designs is something like this design shown left, which has a basic shape and lettering. Twenty minutes to print, student designed it independently (we have four 3D printers as school so I do need to be mindful of other classrooms and what is being designed and printed.
One of the ways that we check off is someone has Tinekercad (or design) mastery is to challenge them to build something and look at the results. Badges is a loose term for a very basic design which allows the students to personalise their prints. It often leads to more creative and inventive designs and can be viewed as a starting point.
This year with half of the classroom being experienced designers (that is being eight year olds having designed and created for a year) the basic designs are something that they have not only mastered but tend to be well experienced in. Extending them can sometimes come in different forms - in this case the original task was to produce a badge, which even independently shouldnt take more than one or two minutes, even for a first time designer. We created a flipped video for this process - created by our students which is still in use.
One of the common challenges with design is how to increase the difficulty without radically altering the task, in this instance we have asked the students to take a basic name plate design and invert the name, so that instead of having it above the print line it is sunk down into the base of the print. This makes it much more robust, as at times the letters being on the outside or above the print can cause them to be knocked off or damanged.
We have regularly updated this series of posts, although you can read the original here. The intention was always to put something on display and have it running long term. It served a simple and specific purpose - we needed to have numbers on display for our emergency assembly area.
We wanted them to stand out. We wanted to be able to adapt or update them easily - and it needed to be durable and sustainable. We knew that the numbers would be outside, in the elements, in Taranaki.
Although our winters and relatively mild, it has still meant the prints have been outside for nearly seven calendar years. Of the original prints we have had to replace several but these have all been replaced as a result of being struck by students with a ball (soccer/football) in particular relative to the goal. There has been no evidence of any PLA that is wearing as a result of exposure to the elements.
Shown left there are the two numbers that need to be replaced for this year - other than a result of accidental damage, as noted there is not going to be the need to replace the lettering which is functional. There will be another update with this post next year if the blog is still being run at that time.
We have done this in the past and this year we saw an opportunity to complete this again, as we found what would be described as a vintage/old dolls house.
The house is built predominantly of wood, with some metal fixtures for the windows etc. It was destined for a skip, to be thrown out as rubbish.
We were able to identify this, and have assigned it to some of our senior students as a project to rebuild it. The first step is obviously the cleaning as shown in the photograph. We have roof and exterior paint available from general repairs that have been carried out around the school.
We want to allow the students to brainstorm the opportunities and think how about we could use our major machines - for instance we could use the laser cutter to create framing for the walls and the windows, such as the photo-framing details previously created by our students. We can use the sticker machine to create details and decals for the walls - and even the floors, as we have previously created as a floor for a basketball court. We have the 3D Printer that could be used to create fixtures, such as a dolls chair previously designed by our students.
The dolls house currently is a shell, it has the bones and it will be an ongoing process that will take sometime and the intention is then to gift the dolls house to the junior school. You can follow is progress during the year using the tag "dollhouse 2025"
In an example shown left the student has used an existing 3D Print, which was a design that is found from the main interface.
The design was printed and put on display, the student then used Tinkercad to create a copy of the original design and then put the two together. You can see from the photograph of the two images shown left. While the quality of the image shows the difference between the real object and the AR/VR version you can clearly see the progression. One of the things that we wanted the student to do was look at how this might look on their desk with the material and prototype what it might be.
The speed was there however MDF generally is not as durable as PLA and the 3D Printed material can sometimes be better especially if something is intended to be handled extensively.
In this case we were able to locate a download from the Thingiverse website which was titled Place Value Cub Manipulative. This file contained the designs that we were looking for - a one, tens and hundreds block. The time to complete the blocks was scaled.
All these figures are listed in New Zealand Dollars.
This allows students to check the viability of their designs as we have demonstrated in the past which you can see by clicking here.
At times the 3D Printers can be limited via their availability as we have a large number of students wanting to print. Using this option with Tinkercad brings meaning to the designs.
In the example shown left the scene was designed by a student using Tinkercad and focussing on a scene (yes we have through about design for instance of a fairy tale, like the woods from Little Red Riding Hood!) and then put through a Pic Collage filter. We have again completed this at length before, examples of which from last year you can see here.
Background: As we start 2025 we want to look to extend our students with their 3D design and not to look to be too repetitive with their projects. Having already had some of the students for twelve months the idea was to incorporate new designs into the classroom.
We issued a challenge for students to use the new tool in a way that we could add detail or reshape a design..
We are always looking for opportunities to how we might use our schools technology in ways that can enhance the students learning. In the example shown left one of the staff from school wanted to create a hundreds board (shown left) a tens board above and then a ones block. These can be used in combination with other material to support learning.
There is a significant opportunity for expanding this further in future, either by students or staff.
We have a classroom of Y3/4 students the Y4 students had the experience of using Tinkercad and the 3D Printers last year, the younger students who are seven years old are typically designing for the first time.
As it has been the last few years we are using Tinkercad to design and maintain our students creativity. This blog has been running for over ten years of 3D Printing for classroom designs - we cannot say enough of the practicality of using Tinkercad for our students CAD designs. Apart from the face its a free program, it is a web based design site continues to evolve and develop. The classroom management is exceptional, and the students are able to design easily - this years new students have been mentored by the older students who have quickly picked up how to design and create.
Each year we start with basic designs such as those shown left. We will not be repeating all of our designs again this year as posts - you can look at the 'search' bar on the right hand side and look at 'badges' which we have created for the past ten years or click at some of our exemplars such as the one located here.
Our students are independently creating these designs which we will be printing a range of, typically we would expect them to come in at under two hours on our Snapmaker Printers. Although for the first time in several years we are going to experiment by purchasing additional printers.
