Market Day 2027

 

There is no Market Day for 2026 - this is an event that we hold at Auroa Primary School every two years with the next event being scheduled in 2027.

In the meantime you can view our extensive highlights page here - which includes links to Mr Bloors amazing summary videos of the past two years.   

In the meantime we are still recording items that we find from time to time that are potential to turn into projects for next year.  This example shown left is a laser cut map of New Zealand.  It has been cut into different layers, which show in the background of the weather patterns and then the entire picture has been wood glued.

It was recently located as an art piece - although we could potentially make our own version and use 3D lettering around the base.  It would require us locating a template map of our country (or area which are easy to locate and should not take too long to print.  Obviously the colour scheme of the picture would require some painting, with either spray painting or different colour combinations and this is something that we would want to produce early, as the students could also modify this and produce their own versions.

2025 Seniors Market Day - Acrylic LED Nightlight Signs

 

During our school Market Day for 2025 we had a number of innovative and creative projects created by the students of Auroa Primary School.   While our students in the junior school concentrated on using Tinkercad and 3D Printing the senior school worked on a number of projects using the School Laser Cutter.  

One of the most popular items from the entire school was the laser cut acrylic night lights.   The students used their Mac Books and Sketch Up to design the top half of the lights.   We were able to produce a range of personalised and localised lights - that were not available anywhere else.   The base of the light was ordered from a prominent online supplier and done so in bulk.  This allowed the students to produce something of high quality and the price that they charged for this - although the purpose of the Market Day was not a fundraiser it was a combination of innovation, personalisation and creativity.

There are numerous resources available online to complete the process - once the template had been produced the senior (twelve and thirteen) year old students were able to complete these independently.

Thank you for your visit - its the School Holidays in New Zealand, our students are returning to school in February 2026 when we'll be back with another year of activities and projects with our seven and eight year olds.  We look forward to your visit then.

Laser Cut Projects: Continued Expansion

 

The Laser Cut Earring project/small scale business is continuing to gather pace.   The students who is responsible for this is refining her designs, including the placement of the holes to attach the earrings to the loop holders, 

She has started to develop ideas such as the finish of the product including experimenting with the staining of the wood (coffee is something that is proving effective).

Central to this idea of using the Laser Cutter for the design is the fact that combined with the technology and the free software available the earrings can be produced for a minimal cost - even allowing for this the student is looking to simply run a small scale business without the need for significant overheads.

This will be documented moving forward during the course of the school year.

Game Board Basic Design:

The same student who is responsible for the earrings project is looking to further develop their skills with the laser cutter.   

In this example she has decided to look at designing a board game using the 3D Printer to create the board.   This is her basic example she has a board and placed some semi-random examples on each of the squares.   The student also designed some basic instructions on each of the squares as can be clearly seen on the left.

The student is revising the board as it stands (which is currently 'busy') and is looking to play test this idea to add depth to it.   It goes without saying that this will be revised and reworked during the course of the school year and we will continue to update the process and product as it develops.

School Market Day 2023 - Laser Cut Projects

 

Our 2023 School Market Day was held on Friday evening where our school had a Gala Night and in addition to this our students were running businesses with the theme of 'innovation' and the expectation that our students were using some of the technology that is available to our students in a creative way.

We have detailed a number of these projects and groups on this blog from our own classroom (in the junior school with students who are seven and eight years old).  Our school of two hundred students includes students who are Year Seven and Year Eight, who are up to twelve and thirteen years old.   An example is the group shown left.   They developed a series of boxes that were based around the use of the school laser cutter (we have an industrial sized one in a room at the back of the school).   The boxes shown in the photo were all produced by the students and the large sign at the front detailed the production process - this in itself was printed on our vinyl poster machine - A1 size.

Our junior students - who are five and six years old while too young to use the laser cutter independently used it to create the dream catchers shown left.  The laser cutter cut out the shapes for the bases and the students then individually decorated them by painting them and applying a range of materials to the dream catcher to aide their presentation.

The production process was shown in the photographs of the students making the designs and the finished product so that parents could see the creations.  We also applied sold stickers in order to allow the display to remain intact for the community to view the dream catchers rather then have them removed when they were sold.

Our senior students were able to use their DPE projects as a potential business.   Our students once a week complete their own Technology Classes as part of this program there is a DPE (Design Production Engineering) in this series of workshops students build their own speakers, as featured on this blog.  This group shown left designed boxes as shown but further developed their businesses by producing inserts (shelves and storage) on the inside for the boxes.  The two sizes shown cost the public eight dollars (for the smaller one on the left) and twelve dollars for the one on the right.   This wood used was a MDF composite which was used with the laser cutter cutting on the design and the different pieces and the students were responsible for assembling all of the parts and putting it together.   Further details about this product including the instructions will be posted later on this blog.

We had several groups of students have aspects of their business involved the production of coasters.  We have previously shown examples on this blog about one of the groups, a group of middle school students (Y5/6) who had a particular interest in NBA Basketball teams and logos created a themed series of coasters relating to popular teams.   They were able to have discussions about the Logo and using the insignia of a playing team and what they could and couldn't do related to then selling them.   They were able to work with a group of senior mentors who helped them using GIMP to complete the creation process.

We also used the laser cutter to develop a series of Gala Games that the student could be involved in running.  We used the laser cutter to precision cut the designs for the games such as Cornhole shown left.   The tables for this were laser cut which allowed there to be variation of the size of the hole (the junior one in addition to allowing the students to throw from a closer distance also had a larger target area.

Finally we used our Vinyl Printer to produce A1 sized posters with the rules and details of the games and activities.   Creating them on this machine meant that they were waterproof and could be displayed easily to not only show the students learning process but also display in this case the rules of the game.  We are going to feature this project in a seperate post on this blog.

We have a considerable amount of material related to this major school event and we will start the process of posting the activities and the creations during the remainder of the school year.

Student Market Day - Laser Cut Tiles and Packaging

We have detailed on this blog in the past that the students at our school have the use of and access to a free standing Laser Cutter (an example of our school one is shown on the link here).   We have used this for a variety of projects such as coasters, or laser cut boxes for our school, and in particular this year for our School Market Day.

Another project that has been completed by our students is using the Laser Cutter to engrave on tiles - an example is shown left with the Piwakawaka shown left.   While the students did not create the image this in theory would be possible.  

We have a group of senior students using their use of the Laser Cutter to create MDF/Bamboo backing for the 3D Prints that the students from our junior classroom have created.   These prints (a mixture of original prints and online located and sourced) have then had the students use the Roland Versa Sign Maker to create
 a unique and creative sticker for this business.

You can see the full evolution of the packaging shown here on the left in a variety of designs from the classroom.

The MDF has been cut to a general size to suit the designs - the students have then used Pic collage and Brand Maker to create a logo themed for their business.   The Roland Versa Sign Maker has then printed the stickers which have been attached.   The MDP (which is 130mm wide) has then been decorated with dye as shown.

As always we feel compelled to mention that this is a junior class of students completing this work.  The students in New Zealand are Y3/4 which places their age as 8 and 9 year old students - many using technology that is mentioned with either support from senior students (who are Year 7 and Year 8) or using technology independently for the first time. 

One of the aspects of the students learning that we want to share is the process that the students have been through.  We have shown examples of the students completing this as we prepare for Market Day.

We have taken examples and printed these on another of our school resources our large HP Vinyl Printer.   These are then being mounted on corrugated cardboard and being put on display with the students work.   This will allow members of the public to view the entire process.

 

Laser Cut Project Ideas: Market Day 2023

Laser Cut Print - Box.    This six sided box was printed as a series of sides which were then assembled and glued.   

A teacher in the senior school provided the box template, and the hinges.  The students were then able to customise the design by adding features.  In this instance the student created a jaw line, nose and the eyes.   The shading on the design was also created by using the Laser Cutter.    The total laser cut time was five minutes twenty to complete.

The purpose of the box is for storage.   This is one of the items that will be sold for our school on Market Day.   There are additional features that have been created for this (laser cut ears, tails etc).  The box measures 80mm by 80mm by 80mm.

This longer version of the box shown left - with a snake design and snake theme, including again a mouth operating as part of the lid mechanism.   The eyes again have been taken out of the design (with the students considering how they might customise the design).   The design is considerably larger than the first box shown - this one measures 300mm long, is 80mm high and 90mm long.  

Ten minutes was required to produce the box which was printed as six individual pieces with tabs which then needed to be glued together.  For this example 2mm of MDF was used (the above box was three times as think).   

Ongoing Technology Projects Combining Technology at our School

 

The photograph left shows the Virtual Pinball Machines related to our school.   The smaller unit is the initial machine from four years ago which has a mod with various staff members being the bonus and details about the school (the school bell rings, the Principal calls for students to leave class when a ball is released etc).   The machine on the right is the full sized Pinball Machine with a game specifically designed by the students called 'Motor Cross Madness' this table and work (completed using the 3D Printer, the Laser Cutter etc) was a year long project for the students.    There are various videos about the creation of this machine located here.   The middle table is the the two player pinball machine being used for the school wide virtual Pinball Competition.   With all these machines when they have been completed the students have been involved in a competition with the students competing against each other.  These initially had videos created for the event, although owing to the volume of students involved we have moved in the past few years to live streaming the event via Youtube.  You can watch some of this years competition here.

This years project is involving a marble maze.  The component pieces for this machine such as the ramps have been designed and printed on our Snapmaker 3D Printers following creating on Tinkercad.  In the instance shown on the left the ramp is an important part of the final product to allow the marble to travel over part of the playing field.  

This component piece is considered 'elite' that is it was not a student design it was completed by an adult as it needed to be completed and work perfectly with the main table and component pieces.   This is a year long project for the students involved and there will be further developments and further posts about this project as it nears completion.

Left: This is a process where a student found an accessory online which they wanted to have made and then downloaded the STL file and had the item printed.  The item in question is a toilet which is sized to work in conjunction with a Barbie Toy.

So its a Barbie Toilet.

We've mentioned in the past that at times we have printed one off objects for students with the intention to inspire or to get the students thinking about what they might be able to produce as a result of this.  Some of the best projects ideas have come from this route.

Market Day: Developing the Technology in Use

 

We are continuing to look at ways to incorporate our schools technology into our upcoming Market Day showcase for the students.

We have shown the flexible animals (flexi-animals) as a major product which has been used for the 3D Printer.   We have been looking at ways to enhance the presentation.  One of the ways is to use another piece of technology to produce the backing, as shown in the photograph on the left.   A vinyl printer has been used to produce a professional grade sticker which the 3D printed slug can be mounted to using blu-tack.   This has created a strong backing unit for the slug which is going to be further enhanced by using another key piece of our school technology - the laser cutter to cut a board of MDF which the sticker produced by the vinyl printer will then be stuck (it has been printed with adhesive backing as a sticker) to the MDF.

We have also refined our games that we are selling.   We have revised the print to look at slightly to improve the print time.  The original took ten hours, however we challenged one of the students to decrease this time, which he was able to do by redesigning the board, essentially making it less deep - this reduced the time from ten hours to five making the production of the boards much more manageable.

Combining the 3D Printer and the Laser Cutter

One of the technologies that we have been always intending to integrate together has been the 3D Printer at the Laser Cutter.  At our school we are very lucky in addition to having mulitple 3D Printers we have a significantly large laser cutter at our school.   

One of the challenges that we have made to the students is can the laser cutter use MDF to cut and then we complete the project by using a 3D Printer to complete it.

This example has taken a theme that the students have frequently used and designed a stationary holder for the students work tools.    In this example the box has been made using the laser cutter and cut out of MDF.  The box shape has been designed to hold the students pen and pencils and the name plate then glued to the outside.  In the example the student has used a 3D Print of a name plate, one of the basic introductory tasks that the students complete when they first join the classroom.

The design in use can be shown on the left while in use.   The instructions for the plate printing follow very similar instructions that we have printed elsewhere on this blog, essentially following the badge/keyring/name plate template and instructions so we will note repeat them here.

One issue discussed with the student is how to finish the presentation - spray painting is the obvious example a layer of spray painting applied to the entire design would provide a seal for the MDF and in addition to this would combine both the laser cut and the 3D Print together.

This is a further development of a print that we have been developing and has previously been detailed on this blog.   The blog design featured a 3D Print that was a blue base - the intention with this has always been to use the 3D Print to produce the print but spend time creating and developing the art aspect of the print - spray painting it and adding additional features.    There are further elements to be added to this print before it is completed and it will be updated here further.

3D Printed Stamp: Project Update

In this project, detailed previously on this blog, the students wanted to create a stamp for use as part of a business day.   The students used creativity, Tinkercad and the 3D Printer to produce a working stamp.  It was suggested that a further design feature could be the purchase of stamp rubber that could then be laser cut to produce a rubber stamp finish and the 3D Printer could then be used for the handle.   The details of the original post about the project are here. 

The photographs that are with this post show the rubber stamp after it has been cut with a laser cutter.

The combination with the 3D Printer to complete this project was straight-forward.      The student concerned who had designed the project created a 3D Print to produce the handle.   This was a very straight forward project with a basic design of a handle and a connection to the stamp by super gluing it to the base.

Left:
The handle in place with the design.   It was a basic design of two simple shapes, the connection to the shape was 5mm thick, the lenght of the handle was 30mm and it was 10mm wide.    It took thirty minutes to print on the regular print settings.   

The student designed the stamp to be used by themselves so the dimensions/size of it were suitable for a ten year olds hand.     The key element of the process was the creation of the process of the stamp and then identifying that a stamp could be produced using a different material and a sourcing and locating it to use the laser cutter.

3D Printed Lettering Combined with Laser Cutting

Challenge: Student wanted to combine the lettering created with a 3D Printer with the use of the school laser cutter with the goal of producing something as a gift for Chirstmas.
Background: Student has shown excellence in use of 3D Printing in the Classroom.  While they are extremely gifted with design we have been trying to encourage to them to think about combining technologies and ideas.   In this case the student created the lettering first, and then used the school laser cutter to cut into MDF to create the background image.   The image came from a simple online search and took approximatley ten minutes to laser cut.  The lettering was created using Tinkercad from the main interface.   The 'Monty' lettering shown with the above photograph was 15mm high and measured 60mm across - taking forty minutes to print.  It was then superglued to the base.

Left: Further repeating the process the student added a coat of basic gold paint to the same process, the base was wood with MDF again and the lettering was a simple case of creating a basic Tinkercad Font design with lettering which were 20mm high and 40mm across. 

The laser cut aspect of the design took ten minutes for the cutting, the design itself was freely available online.

Left: Another similar design instead featuring a rabbit.  Again a similar process to the other designs, the student is using freely available designs or outlines of creatures (in this case the rabbit) and then painting it with a gold backing colour.   The student has gone with a 'Christmas Red' PLA to contrast with the 'gold paint' producing the red to stand out and for effect.

For the printing part of the name the default settings that you will be familar with on this blog apply.

 Next Steps for the Students: The student concerned has developed her use of the 3D Printer to an extremely high standard producing a significant body of work.   The next logical step to extend hereself is to look at combining the two technologies more on significant projects.

3D Printed: Photo Frame Stand

Above: the design photoframe shown with stands

Challenge: To produce a stand for a photograph.    The frame has been laser cut to a students design.  This is a display piece for our Schools Lamb and Pet Day, where we have a significanat number of parents and visitors to our school to see students display work.
Background:   As part of the this annual display at our school we have traditionally had a photographic display.   To enhance the presentation of the photographs, which have traditionally been presented stapled to the wall, the school made the decision to print frames for the photographs, using the Schools Laser Cutter.   Once the frame had been created we needed to find a way to have the photograph stand for display purposes.   Initially we searched for a basic stand, relative to the size of a regular photograph, that would be able to use to have it stand up.    Once we had the frame produced it became obvious that two of the stands would

be required to hold up the photograph.
Level of Difficultly: Low - this was a free sourced design that we needed to produce in large numbers in a relatively short timeframe.  As a result of this the usual process of prototyping and problem solving was not completed.   We ideally would have liked the opportunity to produce original work - but it was not feasible.
Timeframe: Each of the inidividual stands have a forty minute timeframe to complete, obviously multiplied by the number of stands required.   The stands themselves are hollow as can be seen in the photograph shown on the left.

Size: The design has a width of 90mm.  It was 35mm high.   The thickness of the design was 5mm across.   We could have look at modifiying the size of the stand to hold more weight.  Some of the laser cut frames were particularly large and needed additional support.
What would we do differently/next steps for students:   
We had a very short time frame to complete the design and produce the stand.   In normal process we would undertake a significant amount of testing and checking relative to the strength of the 3D Print to achieve the best result for the size of the print - in this case it was not possible.   We also allowed the studenst to have some freedom with the width and height of the laser cut design, and while this was produced in MDF Wood, so it was relatively light, it also meant that producing a stand was challenging. 

Auroa Primary Technology Projects 2017

These projects are not directly 3D Printing Projects - they are showcasing some of the technology that students who are 12 and 13  year olds can complete at Auroa Primary School.  They have one Friday a week for three quarters of the school year where they

Previously we created speakers for 3D Printing that were a major project in 2015.   These speakers required 100 hours or so of 3D Printing to print the feet, handle and speaker covers.  For 2017 our students project was to produce these speakers as described below: the intention is the speakers will integrate some form of 3D printing accessories but students at present have laser cut the speaker from wood.


Rico Explains the Tech at Auroa Primary School - Speakers 2017 from myles webb on Vimeo.

This video is a staff member who created an original Pinball table which was themed by the school with the voices and images of staff members. This is a personal project that he created on his own which he decided to share with the school, with the school looking to eventually have the students develop their own version of this table featuring themselves.


PinballDetails from myles webb on Vimeo.