3D Printed Adapted Fidget Toy

 

Challenge: Student have been present at a local craft market and had seen a stall where one of the products was a 3D Printed Octopus.   The student felt that they recognised the form and the shape from our school Market Day in 2026 and they wanted to produce their own version, with some additional personalisation.  The design was priced at $10.00 for the market.

Background: The student was indeed correct as observant and regular visitors to the site will recognise one of the Market Day Business from 2025 which was Ollie the Octopus.

When the student discussed it with the teacher while the file itself was easily able to be located as a publicly available .stl file the teacher spoke to the student about providing some individual change to the figure or the design to personalise it.

That came in the form of the student using the main Tinkercad interface to introduce both a crown and also their name in large lettering on the back of the design.

Size: Each of the legs are 50mm long.  The main body of the octopus was 60mm high and 50mm across.  The crown was an additional 10mm high at the top of the design.

Cost/Price: The print used 46g of regular PLA to complete the print.  There was a small amount of rafting between each of the joins of the linking on the legs of the design, which allows it to shimmer.

This gave the unit a price point of $0.93c to complete.  As noted in the introduction the price point for this item at the market was $10.00.

Timeframe: To complete this print the design took two hours and forty five minutes.   

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The name of the student in the form of the lettering came out from the design (as shown left).  Normally we encourage students to sink the lettering into the design so there is no chance, particularly on rounded sides of the design for any of the lettering to break off.

The student was extremely happy with the outcome so there is no further adaptions required or intended for this project.

Official School Lamb and Calf Day Video 2026

 

A special thank you to the amazing Mr Bloor for this epic piece of work detailing our Pet Day at Auroa School for 2026.  You can visit his amazing Youtube page here.

3D Printed Original Butterfly

 

Challenge: For a nine year old student to use Tinkercad to create an original 3D Designed (and then printed) insect, in this case a butterfly.

Background: The student involved in this followed the detailed process involved in the insect creation and development that we have mentioned and posted about a significant number of times on this blog, including using the ChatGPT generated resource sheet.

The student involved in the process did so independently and submitted this print for a final printing at which point the teacher was able to view it and provide some feedback - given the dimensions and the details (including the print time, the PLA used) it was felt that there was value in producing the print in a physical form to provide feedback to students.  In terms of the chronological order this print actually was one of the first that we completed.

Resources used to complete this print: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu P1S Printer, Bambu Blue PLA.  The Tinkercad app was important as the wings featured are from the main interface and they were the starting point for the design which then came from that with the remainder of the shapes and body parts.

Size: This was one of the reasons for the quick turn around for the print.  From wing tip to wing tip the print measured 70mm and was 60mm long.  The print body had a diameter of 20mm and including the thorax and the abdomen was 50mm long with the antenna being a further 10mm high.   The intention was for the piece to complement one of the art pieces of the Pet and Calf Day Art Display.

Cost: To complete the print the print used 17g of PLA.  There was minimal rafting (although as shown below even this could have been improved with the legs).  This gave the print a price point of $0.30c.

As shown on the undersize of the print, shown left, the student wanted to make sure the design had the typical six legs that were present in an insect.   By introducing them in the form that they did (six cylinders which were 2mm across and 5mm wide or long).  If the option had been to either adapt these such as making them smaller or printing them separately and then perhaps gluing them in place this would have removed the need for support at the bottom of the print which would have further reduced the cost and the printing time.

Timeframe: The print took one hour and six minutes to complete.  This was significantly contributed to by the rafting or support material that was created by the legs.   In theory we would suspect that it would be reduced by at least a quarter, and if you compare it other prints in the series (such as the stick insect or the ants) which took about half the time, however the balance to that is literally with the feet it sits quite well on the students desk, although it was intended to be placed onto a stick.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: This project when we revisited and reviewed it with the student involved checking off the list of items from the ChatGPT generated worksheet.  While the items on this list were covered the symmetry that is present in butterflies was addressed and discussed and the student, they acknowledged that they needed to adapt the wings and the designs on one side and on the reverse the legs were not attached to the thorax/abdomen area and instead were in the middle of the wings.

Using AR/VR in a Variety of Ways

 

We've spoken about our Pet Day 2026 created senior Fairy Village.  Each of the students had a section of the diorama that was put together to form a large display.   It wasn't our junior students display however we were wanted to use it as a backdrop and background for our students to use their iPads and the Tinkercad App and its ability to project images using the AR/VR button.

There's so many examples of this process and how we've used this with our students with a variety of environments.   There is no green screening or additional resources required for the students to complete the work - the students simply project the design, either an original creation from themselves or something that the have found online or part of the Tinkercad resource library.

You can click here to see how we've used it with our Puanga Art Project earlier this year working on 'Pumpkin' celebrations this year or even our 2025 designed Christmas Tree's.

This example shown left features a Polar Bear from the main Tinkercad interface.   The students did not design the bear it was simply located from the search bar and then imported into the Tinkercad App.   From there the student was able to simply click on the AR/VR button and using their iPad projected the image onto the scene.   The Polar Bear image was then taken as an iPad screenshot.   The screenshot was saved to the students camera roll.   This image was then altered by being run through a range of filters.   For this process we gave the students the option of using the editing process for the photograph or using another app - which in this case was Pic Collage.

This image shown left is the 'Starry Night' filter with the Pic Collage App.   It has been used in conjunction with Tinkercad.   In the middle of the bridge, which was set up between the two classrooms work - a car has been projected onto the bridge.   At the same time there were other students in the background - these are the figures that you can see standing int the background although their image, features and ages have all been significantly altered.   The teacher themselves was in the middle of the photograph and has been removed and replaced as a cape or a sheet - which has been a discussion and talking point all in itself with the students.   The process to complete has taken under one minute to apply the generic filter.

The process was also completed with other filters such as shown left.   This design was created by a student - its first stage was the designing of the Angel like figure which is on the bridge (this is the same bridge with the 'Starry Night' filter above).   The figure was then projected into the middle of the bridge.    When that was completed the student decided that they wanted to use a filter to complete the design and this was the same filter that was used with the other recent post detailing this process the B/W Pencil option.

We have been using Pic Collage as an option for AR/VR purposes.   Recently with the development of more individualised AR/VR with programs such as Chat GPT.   Pic Collage not to be outdone have introduced an open option for the purpose of filters - in the case of the example on the left the student took a photograph of the Fairy Village, and focussed on the pond part of one of the sections.   They then made the decision to create a AR/VR input of make the filter like the 1400's - which then transformed it into the market scene that is shown left.

This is another example of focussing on one element of the fairy village - the pond.    This was created by students, the AR/VR component of it was the duck that was projected into the middle of the pond (this is the same pond that was featured in the photograph above and had the 1400's filter applied to it).

Once this had been screenshot by the student the process of selecting a range of filters was then carried out.   The selected filter was the Pic Collage - Japanese Cherry Blossom that then added the different layers to the final image.   

It goes without saying that the goal of each of the projects is to produce a digital image and not a 3D Print of a physical nature.  

Using PicCollage And Tinkercad - AR/VR Development

 

For Pet Day 2026 our students across the school developed a range of ideas.   For our students in Room Two and Room Three, the senior classrooms with Year 7 and Year 8 students there was an overall theme of a 'Fairy Village' of recycled designs and fantastical village designs.

Our students took the opportunity to use these backgrounds for some creativity involving the use of Tinkercad (for its ability to design and create) and specifically the Tinkercad App and their iPads (which have the ability to project an image onto another location or place).   There are many examples of this process shown here on this blog  which you can click on the link here or use the search bar top right and  use the rag AR/VR.

Our students were given a tour of the displays and then asked to select something suitable that wouldn't look completely out of place in the display.   We then took our technology to the classrooms display and completed the projection process.  This took a few minutes as we had pre-prepared the designs or selected designs that we felt would work well.

One example was the process using the frog from the main Tinkercad interface.   This design has appeared on our blog in the past, as its one of our giant sized AR/VR figures that we showed off in February of this year.

Once the image had been snapped we weren't quite finished, the AR/VR process produces some creative designs but we have also for a number of years now then used additional apps to further enhance or alter the image that has been created.  Pic Collage has been a firm favourite with the ability to take the students image and use a variety of filters and now AR tools to change the image.   In the example shown left you can see the screenshot taken by the student in the process of then applying a filter which in this case was the B/W Pencil filter.   The student has then selected the frog and re-generated this part of the image so its stands out.   From here the final part of the process would be to crop the picture, although as it has been shown here you can see the design page from the Pic Collage app.

This image is another version of the same process - the student has open up the relatively new feature of the AI powered editing process whereby using prompts and writing the picture can undergo further developments and changes.

In this example shown left the frog is visible to the top right of the small pond, which is in a different location to the original as the student was experimenting with the best way to hide or place the frog striking a balance between placing it somewhere were it could be located to having it somewhere which look natural.  

The entire process for this was completed in a single block of time which from start to finish was twenty five minutes by a nine year old working under classroom supervision with the teacher.   There was no input into the creation or design process as the student was capable and able to complete it themselves.

In the image shown left the student used their creativity with a number of factors - they took a phot of their hand holding a bug, which they then regenerated and used the fairy village as the background.

Again this is a screenshot from the Pic Collage app so you can see how the students have applied the idea and the creativity and how it could be used in the classroom.   Obviously this is another example of using the design process that is provided by Tinkercad and applying it in a sense where a 3D Printed project is not the object - in this case it is the image which can then be used for a variety of purposes such as a display (or a colouring in page that is unique and specific to the students).

Minecraft Vs. Tinkercad: Review

 

Challenge: To replicate the Minecraft Bee in Tinkercad as an original creation with recognition factor and details that relate to the original from the game.

Background: There has been an entire series of posts in this series, the majority of which were published last year.  We've spoken in detail how the shapes of the Minecraft game have a relation to the design features that can be created in Tinkercad.   We have linked this to an entire slideshow of projects below.

Printing this design came about as we were looking for other examples to add to the insect project that we were working on.  In this instance however there was a clear difference between the Minecraft version of the insect and the actual characteristics that the students researched that a insect should have as its features.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Minecraft Education (for screenshots to compare the final design with).   

Size: The print of the bee was somewhat oversized being 85mm wide from tip to tip at the front and 110mm long.   The bee had a height of 30mm.   

Cost: The bee in its present size used 28g of regular PLA to complete and this had a price point of $0.56c.  The bee itself looked oversized and obviously was not able to be used in conjunction with the Pet Day Art as intended so the design would be made significantly smaller with the next print.

Timeframe: To complete the print as it stands at present the printer had a operational time of 57 minutes.   As noted if we would significantly reduce the size of the print then this would be reduced to scale.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students:  This print would benefit from a double colour print and a different base coat, also resizing as noted would improve its viability.

The Day Before Pet Day

 

Its our single biggest day of the year! (Well tomorrow it is) its our 2026 Auroa Primary School Pet Day.   On this day our students are going to be super busy showing their animal and their art displays.  As the displays were set up this afternoon we were able to get a sneak peak at some of the amazing work going on around our school.   Our senior school students (Year Seven and Year Eight) have used our school laser cutter to produce the frames for their digital photography as shown left.

The images have been taken by students using technology and then mounted within the custom made frames which have been printed out via MDF.

Some of the students have opted to print out pre-made designs while others have taken features like our local mountain, Mount Taranaki and included this in the design for the frame.

Although the laser cutting time for the frame has varied depending on the details and the additions to the frame.

The other creation that relates to our technology was the use of the laser cutter to produce additional material for the recycled dioramas.

Our senior students other big activity has been there amazing dioramas.   These scenes have had a number of details or features incorporated into their creation - but again students have used the laser cutter for additional details and features.

In the example shown left the idea of a path has been further refined by the arches that mark the path.   Other students have created and detailed doors and furniture which has then been mounted within the scene.

Our amazing AV teacher Mr Bloor is producing another one of his outstanding videos and we will make sure that we share that with you as soon as it is completed following tomorrows activities.

Two Years and Two Machines

In 2024 we used our then Snapmaker machines to produce a range of prints that were the spiral design that was popular at the time.  At the time a range of them had started appearing as part of some of the popular online sites where there were being sold to our students.  A number of students brought these into school and the classroom and we  then in turn located the .html code for these designs and printed our own version.

At the time we noted that the designs were quite robust and required to have some finishing on them, where we removed the 'rafting' or the excess waste PLA that was located in the groves or inside the prints.   Recently we again repeated this process with the change being it is now two years later and instead of using the Snapmaker we have used the Bambu H2D.

As shown left, the photograph has been taken from a design that we located from the Bamub Printer Labs online portal.   This design features a group of four complete designs - the four bases and the four inserts.   

Of note when comparing the two designs on the new version, shown left, there is no waste plastic/rafting which is contained within the groves of the design the designs are complete as shown and printed without the need for any removal.

Each spiral and insert used took thirty eight minutes to complete and used 40g of PLA this had a price point to produce one of the spirals of $0.45c.

This was relevant when considered producing this in large numbers for some kind of school event or fundraiser etc.   There is obvious potential to print with some colour variation or match up.

Pet Day 2026 is Nearly Here!

We've back at school in New Zealand and back for one of our most exciting weeks of the year - our annual School Pet Day.

This is when our students are able to bring pets to school and show their Lamb, Calves and other animals off in the best possible way.   This year we are also working hard on our art displays in the classroom and of course in Room Seven we are using our AR/VR skills and our design work such as our Tin Can Design that are also including a 3D Printed insect.  We have also been using Tinkercad and its AR/VR ability to ensure that we are creating, prototyping and working on our CAD design skills with out students.

Want to see what Pet Day is like at our school in New Zealand - well of course we have the amazing Mr Bloor and his videos such as our 2024 Pet Day Video which you can view by clicking on it here.

We also have some examples, work and great things to share.  Today in class we had a little time to work on our Tin Can Art Displays and also decided to look at using Tinkercad and its AR/VR features to have some fun.

Each photo on this page has a Tin Can theme but also has something that is not present in the actual scene as our students have AR/VR it into place.

In the very first photo it is the butterfly, in the second photo, immediately to the your left you can view the ladybird, but this is the 3D Print that we featured last week, so it is not present at all!

Later on we will be presenting another edition of 'Tinkercadhunt' when we use the Pet Day backgrounds as a project location.

There's also last years video from Mr Bloor below which you can watch with our students showing off some of their skills in art and animal care and responsibility! Can't wait until Thursday!

3D Printed Phone Stand: Fathers Day 2026 Revisited

 

Challenge: To produce a unique gift for Fathers Day 2026 that was created, designed and modified by a nine year old student.

Background: Earlier this year in New Zealand we celebrated Fathers Day.   While we focussed on producing a range of Fathers Day themed coasters we also had selected students who choose to work on other designed themed around this, although with time pressure and demand on the printing machines we also were unsure that we could realistically print all of the designs.

This design was in this category which had some inspiration from an earlier phone stand for Mothers Day from a different student.   The student worked off a basic seat or couch based design which included features such as a hole for the charging cord at the base of the design, was personalised with the name of the student who created the project shown on the base of the design (left) and then had further elements added to it, like the lip holding the phone in place.  All this was developed independently by the nine year old student.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Bambu Bronze regular PLA.

Size: The print measures 100mm across the front and was 60mm wide.   The print was 60mm tall at the front of the design and 90mm tall at the back.  

Cost:  The print used 123g of PLA filament to complete - there was no support rafting for the print (in the photos with the font you can see the additional PLA that needs removing but it is a small amount, the lettering is essentially correct as it stands).  This meant that the project had a price point of $2.47c to complete.   This was one of the reasons that this item was featured as a business by one of our groups from our 2025 Auroa School Market Day.  We were able to create similar sized and designed models that were highly personalised and that we were able to produce and sell as a viable product.

Timeframe: To complete this print the printer was operating for three hours and two minutes.  This was at the standard default settings with the machine and Bambu Studio Labs. 

The dimensions of the print was ideal for holding a regular phone securely.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students:   There could have been some adjustments to the lettering on the reverse of the design and potentially the student could have added some additional details to the print however the student was extremely pleased with the overall look and the functionality of it.   We have a multitude of designs that can be searched for with this theme on this blog if you search for 'phone stands'.

3D Printed Ladybird

 

Challenge: For a nine year old student to adapt and personalise a insect for 2026 Pet Day Art Display.

Background: This is another in the version of the insect challenge that was completed by our students in the final week of Term Three for 2026.   It is currently the school holidays but they're about to end and the students will be returning to school Monday to start working on our amazing term four projects.

This student had followed the process that we've described in detail previously.   This involved using our structured literacy to study the features of insects so that students knew what they needed to include in their design.   The student also researched Ladybird/Ladybugs and found and researched additional information about them (such as being able to identify them based on colour and the number of spots).

This is one of the projects and spots that has lost some of its recognition factor from its digital version (shown above) and the 3D printed versions shown left - this could be addressed by colour matching and using red as a base print colour.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Literacy Resources (for insect research), Bambu H2D, Bambu 'bronze' regular PLA.

Size: The print measures 30mm at the front is 40mm long and is 20mm high.  With these dimensions the print is still considerably larger than actual size, but the intention was to show off the students design skills.

Cost: To complete the print the project used 12g of PLA to print.   This had no rafting on the object and as a result the project had a price point of $0.23c to complete.

Timeframe: To complete this print the printer was operating for 31 minutes to print the insect and six minutes to warm up for a total of 37 minutes.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students:    The spots of the print which are clearly visible in the digital version were not large enough to ensure that they were printed in the physical version, so these would need to have an expanded size so that they would be able to be visible.   Obviously the printing of the object and the colour matching is extremely important to ensure that it had heightened recognition factor.

Kaibot Robot Storage: Prototype

 

Challenge: To produce an original storage solution to house a Kaibot.    The storage needs to include space for the robot, and space for challenge cards above the storage.   The storage needs to personalised for another school and classroom.

Background: We are always looking for ways to help and spread projects to other schools and classrooms.  As an Apple Distinguished School we are also looking for other schools in the network to help.  The recent NZAIMS Tournament in Tauranga for Y7/8 was another example of this.   Normally after each game it is customary to sometimes offer a gift to the other team that were playing, in this case we presented the other team with glow-in-the-dark 3D Printing Badges and Keyrings.

In this example the Kaibot Robot needed to have potential storage.  The task was presented to all of the students in the classroom with a prompt using Chat GPT (as shown left).   The prompt created an image and details for the project which was then pushed out to the students via Seesaw.   The students were tasked with creating a design and were then tasked to AR/VR the created storage into the classroom setting to check on its viability.   You can see the design projection in the first photograph in this post.   When we then went through the selections from the classroom it was decided to move forward to a single physical print - which is detailed below.  Each student (from our class of twenty five eight and nine year olds) was allowed to buddy work with another individual or to work by themselves to complete the project and at this stage the publishing was restricted to the virtual completed tasks.

This allowed the students to review their designs, share them with others and then look and consider adaptions that might need to be made.   It also allowed the publishing of each students example via their Seesaw portfolio.    The teacher then made a decision about the number of prints that might be completed moving forward as the dimensions of the print were significant and realistically printing an entire class run of these objects would take time.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Chat GPT, Kaibot Website, Bambu P1S, Bambu Candy PLA (regular).

Size:   The print is 130mm across the front, is 100mm wide and is 80mm high.   This contrasts with the suggestions made in the ChatGPT prompt which suggested making a width of 300mm.   Although we don't physically have a Kaibot Robot one of the students has come up with the idea of printing a cube, or making a mock up of the same dimensions of the robot and use this as a design point.

The insert into the base of the storage is 100mm wide 30mm high and is 80mm deep.   The four storage bays at the top of the storage for the cards measures 25mm by 50mm.    Again the intention is to mock up a card of the correct dimensions and then apply it to this storage to see if it work.

Cost: The price point for producing this print is $3.47c on the basis of the print using 220g of PLA.   There was considerable rafting that was produced primarily by the insert where the robot is intended to be stored.   In theory this could be produced in different parts and then glued together however there would be questions about stability if this was the case.

Timeframe: To complete this print the Bambu P1S was operating for five hours and twenty minutes to complete the project.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The students need to consider the dimensions of what has been produced relative to the dimensions of the actual robot.  While at times there is an assumption that something will fit without there being an ability to move the object around and have space between the walls or the top of the object.   There is a slight ramp here although it has a steep angle so the consideration should be if the robot can make this up.  This has been a challenge when producing housing for Sphero Robots as shown in this laser cut project.

As noted the next step is to consider the effectiveness of the physical design.   If it does not work in conjunction with the robots how can we upscale or up-cycle this design? How can it be used for additional projects or converted for another purpose?

3D Printed Insect: Cartoon Bee

 

Challenge:   To create or modify an insect

Background: As stated we have one of our school events coming up, our 2026 Pet Day.   Students who were confident with their designs were able to create a range of insects from scratch.

Some of the students were a little less confident and in those cases we encouraged students to look at modifying or changing existing designs.   This bee has been featured on this blog before, as it was part of a previous challenge from November 2025 based around the theme of 'Bee's'.

In this instance the student wanted to experiment with it, make an attempt to personalise it and see if it would fit the design brief.   It should be noted from its design the legs of the bee are not featured and the bee is itself upright - with clear cartoon features.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu P1S, Bambu Pink PLA.

Size: The print measures 70mm across at the base and is 50mm high.   The base has a diameter of 40mm.

Cost: The print used 17g of PLA filament to complete the print (there was some support to assist the wings).   This had a price point of $0.34 for the printing.

Timeframe: To complete the print the print took 51 minutes to complete the print.   This consisted of the standard six minute warm up time and forty four minutes of printing of the actual object.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: 

As can be seen from the image shown left the student wanted to personalise the design by inserting her name into the base of the design.   This proved a little more tricky than the student anticipated as the design had a round shape and the lettering needed to be bent to fit in with the base.    The student obviously designed the object with the high recognition factor of the bees and therefore colour matching would be better served with this print, having it as a base of black or yellow and then applying the additional colour as spray painting to create the designed colour.

3D Printed Cart Holders - Bambu Labs

 

We are always looking for examples of resources that could potentially be made, created or designed for the classroom or students.

Recently one of our wonderful teachers was printing a set of card holders, while they were designed to hold the specific cards to a game they also could have a great potential in the classroom as a resource.

We have explained that we made the decision to change our printers to Bambu Labs/Bambu printers during 2025 replacing previous brands.    We are incredibly lucky to have three machines to run at our school.   Bambu Printers come with an extensive online data base of pre-made resources, pages and literally hundreds of designs about many topics.

In this instance these as standard card holders - they measure 90mm by 65mm and are 17mm high.   Crucially and this again demonstrates the powers of the machines the boxes have a width of 1nm and was produced without any support or waste plastic.

In a classroom environment it would be easily possible to personalise these boxes by including a name or a description on the outside of the box.    These boxes took five hours to print - however this included the printing of three boxes and three inserts.   This used  110g of PLA to complete the print and had a price point of $2.20c.

There are a number of students who play various card games here at school, and again the clear potential here is for this design to be used as a stepping point or an idea to encourage students with their own designs using part of this as a starting point.

3D Printing 2026: Lore Revision (Part Two)

 

This is the part two of our revision posts about the concepts the idea was to have 'discussion points' or thinking points about what is potential with 3D Printing and design tech - it was originally conceived as a couple of potential challenges as sometimes there are barriers either real or imagined that form the basis of 3D Printing.  These are only ideas or observations rather than hard opinions!

#5 The Teacher is aware of 3D Printing, but doesn't need to be an expert. (originally published in January).  This idea was based around the concept of the students being the best individuals to design and push the technology.   Evaluation: Successful - to date and its only been over ten years but there has yet to be a post from this teacher on this site.

#6 You don't need every PLA to complete your designs.   (originally published in February 2026).   This idea was based around the concept of keeping things simple with the printing and then doing things like spray painting or adding additional aspects to your print (like combing printing with laser cutting or adding LED).  It again revisits the idea or concept of potentially not using a 3D Printer as the end point for a project and instead considering adding additional aspects or details from a variety of technology.   Evaluation: Successful.

#7 Engage as much as possible with your local community - we try as much as possible to push examples out into the community either with other schools or other businesses and want to try and get as many people as possible aware of and using our technology.    There are examples of this all over our blog based around other schools we have produced work and projects for the community or other schools.

Evaluation: Successful.

#8 You don't need to be an engineer to 3D Print.    This was based on the technology that exists and not having to constantly repair the 3D Printers.    As a note its not something that has been achieved.  We run our three printers on a nearly daily basis, and why they are much more reliable than the past (its been over ten years, in the "old days" some of the printers needed to be rebuilt!) there are still issues from time to time.  We are very lucky to have a staff member who has an engineering background who loves to repair machines (which is not me) and I am aware of various schools having parents who undertake this role, if this wasn't the case it would be a potential issue as if a machine needed repair then that could be a barrier.  Our Bambu machines have require two part replacements in the last year.   Both of these were able to be completed on site by staff.    Evaluation: Not successful and something to be careful of.

Holiday Break: October 2026

For those of you who are unfamiliar with our location, we are located in rural New Zealand at the wonderful Auroa, South Taranaki.   We have great location, this photograph was taken today at lunchtime outside our school looking towards the maunga/mountain that dominates our landscape, Mount Taranaki.

Our students are currently on the second week of their two week break between terms three and four of 2026.  We will be back posting next week with our regular contributions.

In the meantime we are looking at a range of posts from last term that our students were working on. 

As we've mentioned in a post last week as such we don't have a massive seasonal celebration at the moment, and our friends in the USA obviously have a large volume of material themed around celebrations later this month.

We are printing a small selection of material primarily to encourage 'thinking' and design about it from students with this theme, including some of our Pumpkin AR/VR work from the end of term.

This design was located online and has a diameter of 50mm.   It is 30mm high.  It has used 22g of PLA to complete the print and has a price point of $0.45c.

While it would not suit a candle due to it being PLA printed it would potentially benefit from having an LED light inside of it.    Free .STL files such as this one are available in significant numbers and can be easily accessed for printing purposes.   We usually print a small number of such items where appropriate and ask students to consider or think about them.

3D Printing 2026: Lore Revision (Part One)

During the course of the year we've had a series of 'discussion' posts or focus challenges based around some thinking about the application of 3D Printing at our school and how it might be applied to other educational environment.

#1 You don't need more than one printer at your school to print your projects: (originally published in December 2025).   Evaluation: Not successful - we were attempting to complete all our prints on one machine this year however we have been switching between three machines depending on what has been available or what needed to be completed.   We had times when the Bambu H2D needed to have a nozzle replacement as a result of use, which meant we had to use of P1S to complete projects at that time.  Blog Tag to search for further information: Bambu H2D, Bambu P1S.

#2 All your 3D Print Projects don't need to end in a physical print. (originally published in January) Evaluation: Successful.   By using Tinkercad as a design tool with our iPads we have continued to follow a process to create and produce a digital outcome first and foremost before we make a physical print.  There are significant examples of this process and output on this blog for nearly every project that our students have completed and entire slideshows of summary work dedicated to this process.   Blog Tag to search for further information: AR/VR, Tinkercad AR/VR.

#3 Enhancing your projects by using non-standard PLA for different outputs. (originally published in January).   Evaluation: Successful.   We have used a range of filament this year again including a considerable amount of Bambu branded glow-in-the-dark and super glow-in-the-dark filaments.    Blog Tag to search for further information: glow-in-the-dark.

#4 Juniors can create! (originally published in January 2026) We wanted to challenge the notion that 3D Printing, CAD Design and creation is a senior school activity.   We have a classroom of Y4 students which is the core of nearly every print produced and showcased on this blog.   Evaluation: Successful. Blog Tag to search for further information: Anything that is not tagged Y7/8 is 'junior'.

This is part one of two.

3D Printed Ant: Standard Version

 

Challenge: To create an original and correct insect student (nine year old) designed 3D Print.

Background: As per the last few number of prints on this blog this is in preparation for our 2026 Pet Day.

As per the post from yesterday we experimented with using the P1P Bambu Printer and the Bambu H2D.   With the experience yesterday we printed on the Bambu H2D first and then followed up with P1S when the Bambu H2D didn't print the leg at the back.

As we suspected the print needs to be slowed down, by printing on the P1S we printed an identical design, an identical file but this was successful.   If we were using the Bambu H2D we would slow the process down.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu P1P, Bambu Blue PLA.

Size: The print measures 55mm wide across at the front from the tip of each leg.   The print has a length of 70mm and the print is 55mm high.  The student (who is nine years old) deliberately introduced the legs and antenna to ensure that they survived the printing process and were not too weak, although it did leave them looking decidedly oversized and blocky.

Cost: To produce this print the project used 38g of regular PLA.   This gave the project a price point of $0.38c.

Timeframe: To complete this print the printer was running for one hour and ten minutes.   This is typical for designs in this run of creations with these dimensions.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The ant when compared to others in the series does not have the facial definition that the others have.   The legs were increased in dimensions and size to ensure that they survived printed but now look somewhat comical and also are identical.   Finally the colour matching or the decorating, spraying etc of the print could be considered to enhance its presentation.   We still have a week of school before the Pet Day (which is in Term Four, the first week back after another week of holidays) and given the size of the print a reprint is a distinct possibility.

3D Printed Ant: Advanced Version

 

Challenge: Create a unique and detailed insect using Tinkercad to define and detail the features.

Background: Its been detailed on this blog for several weeks about the insect project which came from a focus on our 20206 Pet Day Art Display.

As part of the art display we've got a small 3D Print to go back and put on display with our art projects.   The challenge is based around shared literacy tasks - last term we researched, investigated and wrote about insects and analysed their characteristics and features.  This design was influenced by some of the earlier ants in the series that had the form and character correct but were lacking somewhat in some of the more detailed features.

When you view the face of the design you can see the student has opted for antenna, eyes and also the mouth has been based around viewing close up and magnification of various ants.   This student also went further making this a 'fire ant' and was able to adapt the colour palette on Tinkercad to do so.

There was a technical error that occurred with the printing of this design, one we are going to investigate further.  The student designed this as per our usual process - and one of the legs, at the back left, did not print successfully on the Bambu H2D - although it did on the P1S.    We believe based on a quick investigation that the speed of the H2D in this instance was too quick for the design, and the shaking and the movement of the printing process caused the fault in the process - this is the potentially the case as the smaller, cheaper machine was able to print the design successfully without any error.

The student who designed this print spent time to ensure the legs were shaped and had segmented detail on them.    There are grooves in the mouth of the ant and additional small details throughout the design.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Bambu Blue PLA

Size: The print at present is 80mm long, is 40mm from the base of the feet to the stop of the segments.   The biggest body segment is 30mm by 30mm and the middle is 20mm by 20mm.

Cost: The print uses 67g of PLA to complete the print which included rafting.   This gave the print a price point of forty one cents to complete.

Timeframe: To complete the print the Bambu H2D was running for one hour and eight minutes.  A switch to a Bambu P1S would not significantly alter the timeframe.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: It is our clear intention to print this on the slower, smaller printer as we believe the print will be successful (we could also slow down the H2D).  The intention was to print a fire ant with a red base obviously the PLA used was red although potentially we could have made a two coloured print using the dual nozzles of the machines.   The legs also at present have the same pose on both sides the student has the ability and the skill to pose these differently and produce a design that is reflective of a more natural post.   As noted as well the width of both the legs and the antenna reflect the students desire to create a robust print that would survive handling.

This entire project was undertaken and completed (independently) by a nine year old cohort two student.