Fifteen 3D Printed Cows: Lore #6 You Don't Need Every PLA

This is a follow up from a previous print listed on this blog detailing the preparation for a community event associated with our school and the way that we are producing a point of interest.

It also ties in very well with another 'Lore' to think about when considering 3D Printing int the classroom or educational setting.  These are are all ideas and we don't expect you to agree with everything and this very. much applies to our own mindset - it is very much acknowledged that every school and environment is different.

To recap on what we've looked at previously:

#1 - You don't beed more than a single printer to print in a school environment.

#2 - You don't need to 3D Print all of your students 3D Printing projects.

#3 - 3D Printing using glow-in-the-dark filament is easy

#4 - Juniors can 3D Print just as well as seniors

#5 - The teacher needs to be aware (but not an expert). 

The point of this post is to show the group of five of the distinct cows that are going to act as the centre piece for each of the tables for the community dinner.   Rather than have 'regular' cows we decided to go for novelty cows that are designed to stand out because of their decoration.   Once we had decided to look at the base set of PLA available we talked to the students about other options.    One of the students knew that we had used spray paint in the past to change the colour of prints that had been made so we started the discussion about this.   The students started looking at options for how they might alter the colour when the prints were spray painted.   In the group that is shown above the cow that is located at the front right is a regular PLA print that has been sprayed florescent pink.   This has also led to discussions about using masking tape to create stripes etc.   which we still doing shortly and greatly expand the opportunity for the production of 'individual' cows and more 'unique' prints.

3D Printing Lore #5 - The Teacher is Aware

We've been looking at some basic facts about 3D Printing that might be discussion or talking points for individuals (teachers) or adults or groups who might dip their toes into 3D Printing from a practical stand point and considering some of the obstacles.   Every school has a different situation a different set of circumstances that dictate how projects might work which could be simple as resources or ongoing funding for something as basic as PLA.   We have a focus on creation and innovation at our school and are incredibly lucky that we can use the technology in a way that we do.   

Previously with regards to lore or challenges:

#1. You don't need more than a single printer to print in a school environment.

#2 You don't need to 3D Print all of your students 3D Printing projects

#3 3D Print using glow-i-the-dark or other filament is easy

#4 Juniors can 3D Print just as well as seniors

Each of these four points has a small post about examples of how you might approach the concept or the challenge that it could face.   The fifth 'lore' concept for 2026 is 'The teacher is aware'.

The skill set that a teacher needs to create or encourage 3D Printing needs to be an awareness but not a mastery or experience to any particular level.   While teaching and encouraging creativity are incredibly important in teaching any part of the curriculum the practical terms is that the teacher in this case is not particularly skilled in designing or creation.  Over time an awareness of what might work or what might not work has become a bit more obvious (although as the technology improves drastically as the machines improve as shown from what the students were doing in 2014 compared to what students have been completing in 2025

One main reasons for this site is to encourage the use of technology within classroom and school environments and locations.    Hence examples like this slideshow below - it is intended to allow a teacher with minimum experience to complete the process of creating ear rings with a class of students, in this example the class who worked on this project was seven and eight year olds however it is quite possible that this could work on a variety of levels.   It was intended as a basic 101 project for someone who might be working on 3D printing with students for the first time:

 

 Note from the author of the blog:

This site was always intended as a way to share the use of technology - it was originally just a 3D Printing site but as the technology has evolved over time (yes we really did start posting in 2014) other options have become available to the point now even the name of the site is in question.   Originally it was only ever going to be a 'blog' as this teacher had previously worked on successful class blogs in the past (this archive clsas blog for example has now had 1.3 million page views and is more popular now when active) however recent events have meant that we are preparing to launch on several other formats in the near future, although the intention is for this site to remain more or less the same, at least at the time of writing this (January 2026).  

3D Printing Lore - Juniors can 3D Print

 

We've been creating a set of teaching points to consider relating to challenging the thinking of teachers and educators with the use or application at a regular state school.

Previously we've already stated three:

#1 You don't need more than one machine to 3D print with your students at school.  This year we are anticipating using a single machine for our classroom and the majority of the 3D Printing work at our school.

#2 You don't need to 3D print all of your 3D printing projects.  We again this year will be creating and designing a number of projects but not all of them will make it to the printing stage - a number will be published as AR/VR images and other designs.

#3 3D Printing Glow in the Dark - changing filament to a different kind of printing is increasingly simple and adds dimensions, texture and a different aspect to the students designs.

#4 Juniors Can 3D Print.  This blog has gone through several stages of development, starting with its initial years the designs and creations were completed by senior students.   Since 2022 the prints, designs and creations on this site have been generally created by students who are seven and eight years old.

One of the biggest misconceptions that is currently met by many teachers is that 3D Printing is for seniors (older students) and not something that juniors are capable of or necessarily have the skills to complete, which was very much my own line of thinking when I changed classroom levels to the junior school - nothing could be further from the truth.   Students have consistently and constantly shown great aptitude to use Tinkercad to develop and plan, adapt and create a wide range of projects for the most part completely independently of the teacher.

A case in point which we are highlighting now is the 'cyclops' storage print which came as a result of introducing the 'eyes' sticker sheet shown above to the students.   When given to the students as a challenge the idea was to produce a character using an eye as the starting point.

Students in the classroom produced a range of ideas and one of the seven year old students created the design featured on this page.  They did so independently of the teacher, with the exception of the 'eye'.   The concept, the idea, the design and process was all completed by the student who then in turn handed the final .stl file to the teacher for the teacher to print.  There was no input or guidance and was completed by a student in their first year using Tinkercad.

The design took just over one hour to print, details of the full process and how it modified over time can be seen on this post here, followed by the final design which is described here.

3D Printing School Lore 3: Glow-in-the-dark

 

Recap:

#1 You don't need more than one machine to 3D Print with your students and school! In 2026 we are going to complete all of our projects on one machine.

#2 You don't need to 3D Print all of your 3D Printing projects! In 2025 we started moving away from printing every project and a number of times we used the design process, completed the design but used the Tinkercad AR/VR option as the publishing of the project instead of the physical printing of an object.

There are numerous examples of both of these projects on this blog which you can search for by clicking on the link or using the 'search' box in the top right hand corner of this blog.

#3 - Printing Glow in the Dark Filament is easy! This is something that has evolved over time.   In previous years the printing with specific filament other than regular PLA tended to be something that was avoided.   We sometimes had to store the PLA in air tight containers or clean out the machines once we changed the filament.

When we held our 2025 Market Day we wanted to be able to create a range of interesting prints and challenging for our students - 3D Printing was able to be featured significantly but we wanted to do something a little more interesting and hence the use of 'super' glow-in-the-dark filament.   

Having already ordering various combinations in the past we did so again.   A challenge for you as an educator is to consider what combinations, what differences or what adaptations that you can make by using different filament.   Students have plenty of experience with basic PLA but breaking down the different types available and the different kind of material that can be printed.  To further provide some practical example the video below was created to further illustrate and show the process and examples: 

2025 - The Year in Review: Inter school Challenge

 

In November this year as we started the process of wrapping up the year in design and creation we gave the students various challenges based around several themes.  One of these was an inter school challenge.  In this we choose a school and looked at finding out information about the school - but in particular we wanted to focus on looking at producing a likeness or a model of their logo.

Auroa School has a Pukeko as its current mascot.   We have attempted to replicate this ourselves to varying degree of success and we have also looked at other local schools with complicated logos and designs, although in some cases we opted to use the Roland Versa Sign Maker to ensure that we could accurately represent the logo.

In this instance we choose another ADS the Gardens School from Manurewa.  We published two significant post about the process at the time.   

The first phase of the project was looking at the school online - we are a rural school in South Taranaki and the students were interested in the differences with a urban school in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

The logo of the Gardens School is quite distinctive and we spent time with the students using Tinkercad to design the logo.  When the early prototypes had been completed we then spent time to reflect on the design and specifically compare them to the original.   Small details which didn't appear obvious to the students could then be discussed in detail, such as the size of the koru in the design, or the number of 'strikes' or 'flashes' that came off the design.

Once we had started the process the students were tasked with AR/VR projecting their recreated image at different locations around our school.   An example is like shown left where students used their iPads and Tinkercad to project the logo from another school onto our adventure playground.  We also talked with the students about other locations that it might be appropriate to display it at.  This is a process that worked extremely well with our Dolls House Project and also something we are going to complete extensively in 2026.

We have a set of school values at different locations around our school (as shown above the drinking fountain shown left).    In this example students took their 'Gardens School' logo and projected it next to one of the Auroa School values.   When this was then compared back to the original we had a discussion about how the two looked side by side, what adjustments needed to be made etc.

We also spent time looking at the font design and the design of the colour on the design.   While we were looking at a 3D Print, and ultimately did produce a number of them they all came off the same print which was featured on this blog here as this was the best finished product.  This is one thing that we would like to have considered when designing and creation and something that we have come to believe quite strongly that you don't need to produce a 3D Print with every project that you are involved with.   The CAD design opportunities provided with iPads and other technology combined with iPads can mean that there is design opportunities but it doesn't mean everything needs to be printed.  We have created a slideshow of activities that fit this criteria which you can view by clicking on the link here.

One of the awesome aspects of this challenge was that we were constantly able to direct students to what the logo should look like, how it should be represented and how the could define and adapt their designs to fit the desired outcome.

We had a class of seven and eight year olds work on this project as well, a combination of students who had used Tinkercad for two years and novice designers.

Thank you for your visit to this site - we are no longer posting here actively as it is the 2025/6 School Holiday Break.   We are posting reviews, achieves and material that could not be posted during the 2025 School year.   

We are also redesigning and redeveloping this site as well as expanding this digital template as we add significantly to a number of platforms, more of which will be announced in the new year.

3D Print School: 2026 Preparation and 3D School Printing Lore 1

 

We are currently on our end of year school break, the teacher, students and school are scheduled to be back here posting again regularly in February 2026.

In the background we have been preparing a new work space at school for 2026.   We previously had the Bambu H2D located outside in our STEM shed and the Snapmaker printers located in the school library.   While these were great locations we were constantly monitoring things like the temperature and the humidity (especially outside in a work shed).   The solution was to more the machines into a central location into a dedicated printer space.   This not only makes them much more accessible but also meant that we can look at other challenges.  The space is a blank space as such so the intention is to further line the walls, increase storage (shelving) for PLA.   The location will contain one Bambu H2D and three Snapmakers (one dual head) machines (see 3D School Printing Lore 1 below).

The laser cutter is remaining outside in the STEM shed.  This is the singular laser cutter that we have on site at our school and all of the projects on this blog that have been completed or will be completed in the coming school year will be completed on this machine.

Please note the dimensions of this machine - it is a AEON Laser Cutter from Makerspace.  This is not a desktop machine and it was fundraised via the school PTA as a major fundraising target.

Finally there is the subject of 3D School Printing Lore - which is intended as a challenge or observation.

This blog is going to feature a years worth of project from a class of junior school students in South Taranaki, New Zealand.   You can visit our school site here, or look at some of our school videos via Mr Bloors amazing youtube page here.

We have 200 students at the school in total from 5 to 12 years old.

Essentially ever print that will feature in 2026 will be run via one machine - the Bambu H2D.   While this machine is essentially brand new and again we are very fortunate to have it, we are going to run the entire output for a school year primarily off one machine.   

Every now and then there are discussions about things like output, technology and resourcing all of which we are incredibly fortunate to have here at this school.

We would love to hear other peoples stories in terms of resources, output and challenges, but in our example we will be running everything on this page (and we intend to increase its production as well as combining it with other formats, media) via one single machine.