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 Junior Challenge: Miniature Bees

 

We have talked about in the past how were always looking for things that might combine from the 'real' world into a 3D Design challenge or a 3D Printing challenge.   Examples of this which we've covered this year was the cyclops challenge which was based around the use of an oversized eye as the starting point for a project that morphed into the 'cyclops' project, the dolls house project which started with our students looking to repair something local or our art stencil project where we asked our students to use Tinkercad and their iPads to develop their own stencil for use with art.

This challenge came in a similar vein - we were looking at bees for shared reading and this provided the theme.  We again source from a local dollar store a bag of 'miniature craft bees' we then presented them to the students and encouraged them to think about ways to build a design around the object.   Early examples from our seven and eight year old students had the students using Tinkercad to combine a bee shape (from the main interface, left) with a small group of the craft bees.   The student had some knowledge about queen bees and their role so wanted to show this was a queen and therefore used the 'scribble' feature to add a crown and some regal features.  The student then took their iPad and used the TInkercad app to project the queen onto a scene with the 'real' bees.

The student shown left had a different idea - they wanted to use the bee as an inspiration to create honey comb earrings - with the craft bee placed there for scale.

We have talked about the suitability of ear rings as a realistic project before in terms of print times and detailing.   We have also created a slideshow (for teachers) detailing the process of how to create such a project.   Again the student to display the creation used the Tinkercad app and its AR/VR ability to project the earrings into place so they could determine how they might look once they were constructed.

This design challenge also allowed students to work on their own bee designs and also have a conversation about the parts of an insect and its composition.   The colour matching on Tinkercad also included discussions about the stripes, the wings and the details.   The student not only then projected their own AR/VR bee next to a 'craf't' bee they also created an entire flower (right) and started to look at pollination and the different features of a flower (again which lent itself to another AKO or investigation).

We also had students who were a bit less confident use the designs repeat feature to build a scene like the one shown left.  This is typical of something that the students can create, then use for a purpose (in this case it was projected onto the floor of the classroom).

This featured the first 'queen' bee (from the top photograph which was then transferred between students for some to use again or put a different spin onto it.

This open ended challenge also allowed students who were operating at the other end of the design scale to share their ideas - as shown left.  In this instance the student has been experimenting with hinges and locks and wanted to print an entire box.

We are likely to break this down in seperate pieces and print it as a set.  In every case we are going to have a sharing session with the classroom where we can apply to the students the same questions that were a key cornerstone from our recent School Market Day - can you personalise the print? How can you use your iPad to create? How can you innovate or improve your design once it has been started?