3D Printing: Five Year Old Y1 Progressions

 

Challenge: For a five year old to create their first ever 3D Print designed, assisted by a junior student (seven and eight year olds).

Background: We are always looking for examples for our students to work with and also opportunities for our students to spread their knowledge.  In this instance we wanted our students to be able to work with individuals from our new entrance classroom, the students who have just started school.

For the task we wanted to balance it between something that would be achievable and something that would be memorable.   We revisited one of our students tasks that had worked well recently with the classroom, which was the cat box design task which originated from our recent general cat themed design.

The original produced task had our students work with the other students and show them the process.   They were able to grasp the understanding of the 'scribble' command very easily which provided the creation of the face of the cat, as shown in the first (red PLA) picture.    The whiskers and the ears had to have the students demonstrating it to the students and having them copy the design, although they could vary the length.   The concept of the name and placing that on the back of the design required close mentoring from the students.     

The final issue was the depth and size of the storage aspect of the cat, in this instance the students needed to take the lead.   In the first example the storage was minimal, in the second the storage was too close to the edge, which while this appeared to be solid resulted in a failure to print as a result.

The final version we opted to create a 'wow' point of difference by using the glow-in-the-dark filament to complete the print.   In the third example (shown left in the pink PLA) the elements of the print that had been identified that needed addressing from the previous two versions.

Size: Although there is some slight variation as the prints progressed with the size of the base (rectangle) the design measured 100mm across was between 50mm and 70mm deep.   Again while there was some variation the height of the print typically was 50mm high.    These dimensions are intended to ensure that the design works as a small storage device rather that something that is taller that might hold pencils etc.    The five year old student had some awareness of size and depth, however they weren't particularly able to articulate the length and measurement of the print.

Timeframe: While we are dealing with a progression of three distinct prints (as shown left) and there was some variation with the overall time it was between four hours and four and three quarter hours.

Potentially this could have been expanded to increase the storage size, however the experience was intended as a taster for the student and to also provide an opportunity for the students from the core classroom to mentor younger students and thus increase their own skill set.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: For the five year olds the project was completed successfully in terms of completing the project and producing their first print.  For the (slightly) older students the process of creating, refining and explaining was a lesson in developing their own skills.