Auroa School Kickstarters: Part One

Group: The 4 iPads

Innovation: Students have used Tinkercad to  make adjustments to the iPads holder that is created using the main interface.

While this was the creation process the students were able to use the designs and their Tinkercad experience to adapt them by altering the size to fit either iPads or iPhone stands.    The next  stage was for the students to consider how to add additional features to the stands so they were not run of the mill basic stands.

Personalisation: The designs were made with examples where a message was sunk into the base of the stand.   The name of the person was also included as a major feature on the front of the stand.

You can view further details of the print by clicking on the link here or you can view all of our school Kickstarter projects by clicking on the link here.

Group: Auroa All Blacks

Innovation: Students used Tinkercad to create unique key rings for a range of individuals.   The student are able to make unique key rings that are not available elsewhere.  As an additional feature the students made the decision to look at producing these using glow-in-the dark filament.    The students were able to use Tinkercad independently.  There were numerous examples of these available online that the students were able to use for a design.

Personalisation: The very nature of these prints meant that they were individualised with the name featuring on the key ring,   

You can view further details of the print and examples by clicking on the link here or you can visit our school page here which contains links to every Kickstarter group in our senior school.

Refining and Working: Junior School Badges

 

Challenge: To take a badge design and redefine it further, extending and expanding on it.

Background: We have a class of students who are refining their 3D Design and creations.  As part of the process a series of students have been exposed to the 3D Printers and projects for the first time.   

We started the students with the basic designs and have then asked them to challenge themselves with the next step - what can we do next? What have we learnt to develop our designs with unique and creative creations?

This design came from a student who had a farming background and wanted to incorporate a tractor design into his work.  While he could have looked to have have imported a pre-made design into this, he instead decided to represent the shapes by using a round of geometric shapes to create the tractor design.  The ability to do so is one of the key components that make Tinkercad such an excellent tool for a class of iPad students.

Level of Difficulty: Medium to low.  This is a straightforward design idea, that shows a students ideas developing and starting to increase the scope of designs.   The student is just starting to push himself in creative and innovative ways having just started working with 3D Printing and Tinkercad - in the last three weeks.   There is clear and obvious potential to improve and refine this design further.

Timeframe: Five hours - this could potentially be refined further as a reduction was possible.

Size: The print measured 165mm across the front and was 85mm high.  The print was 5mm thick.  These dimensions produced an oversize key ring or badge that would work for certain keys (such as a door key) or the kind of key that you would not want to loose (as its size would prevent it from easily being put into a pocket or misplaced.

What we would do differently/next steps for students: We are attempting to encourage this student with his designs and creations and this is shown clear progression from his first designs.  When he completed his initial print he was being helped by another student, which then led to him working independently to complete the stencil.   This then led to there being a progression through to this design and it should be a signal of things to come.

3D Printed Keyring - Extending students with challenges

Challenge: To develop and improve on a students original design 

Background: This student was previously in the classroom, she has been independently working during a 'genius hour' type program of working.  She decided that she wanted to revisit some of her 3D Printing ideas and projects from last year.   As part of this she looked at creating a key ring that had more detail to it than some of her previous efforts.   As a Y7 student who is eleven years old she was able to create and design the project herself and undertake the printing.

The teachers role in this situation was simply to give the student feedback on her design and look at ways that she might improve it.   The dimensions of the print where as such that the print time was just over half an house.

In the first version of the print, shown left, she had designed the guitar with only three strings, and the dimensions while charming were not as accurate as they could be.   It was unknown as to wether or not the strings themselves would be successfully printed as they were only 2mm or so wide.   There was no 'rafting' or waste plastic with this print it was able to be removed easily from the Snapmaker machine when it was completed.   

The student was then tasked with thinking about ways to make the print look more realistic and think about the design aspect of it, while still maintaining its ability to be workable as a key ring or similar item.

As shown left the progression with the design is clear to see.   This version featured five strings and further details like the ability for it to be tuned.   The student has been asked again to think about additional details to determine what else can be modified so that this print can be further worked on.

Details of the Project: It currently sits at being 80mm long, is 20mm high and only 5mm thick - the print time is coming in at under one hour (around forty minutes at present) and as mentioned this has been completed as a 'one and done' print, the teacher having no input at all into the process instead being simply guiding and checking with the student about any challenges or details moving forward.