Room Seven Auroa Primary School: Week Nine

 

We've approaching the school holidays in New Zealand where we have our mid year break.   As it is a very busy time for our students we have a number of projects that are ongoing at the moment - and we wanted to share and highlight some of these.

In the print featured left the students working on the toy tractor accessories have reworked their original design which was featured on this blog here   It has been considerably resized however now works in conjunction with the tractor perfectly and the students are now looking at ways to refine the design and develop further accessories along the same lines.    

A seperate group of students are experimenting with the process of linking - starting with their names.   They are working with a former student who spent a considerable amount of time last year mastering the art.   You can see example of this students work here and here.   This is the link to the earlier post this month on the subject which you can see by clicking here.

Our students have been working in pairs on the 2026 version of the 'Pencil Sharpener Challenge.

In this challenge students have to take a small physical object (in this case a pencil sharpener, regular size to sharpen a regular HB pencil0 and build a 3D Print to house it.   This involves the students engineering a problem that needs to resolve the location and depth of a print, the exit of the sharpening once its been used and the overall look and composition of an original design.

It has proven to be something of a semi-regular challenge that involves a small outlay but allows the students to be engaged and consider size as well as the challenge of building something around an object.

There are a number of designs that feature on this blog that you can access by clicking on the link on the top right hand corner of this blog, as a search bar will allow you to locate everything tagged with this.

During the holidays we are celebrating our Matariki National Holiday - although we celebrate it slightly different in our region (Puanga).   This project is going to be a significant art project for the remainder of the term.    

Our students have been creating AR/VR images of both the constellation (for Matariki) and the star for Puanga which will be a physical display in our classroom.   You can click on the link to this work here or you can as always use the search bar.

Finally as an Apple Distinguished School we are sending a number of staff to the ANZ Apple Summit in July, please get in touch with our teachers (from Auroa School) if you see them there.

Developing Junior Linking: 3D Prints

 

We have detailed previously how the students of our school have developed a number of engineering skills related to their use of Tinkercad for CAD design and creation. A key engineering concept of use for the 3D Printing is some form of linking.   Our students have just started the journey - where they are experimenting with using a ball and socket design with their creations.   The first attempts are shown in the top left of this post.   While this may appear to have been successful the attempt to do so needs work.

The ball and socket combination requires the width to be able to manipulate the different sections and robust enough to be moved out of position and back into position again.

The student who has worked on this design has now started conferencing with the student who was responsible for the linking from the Market Day 2026 work.    This student while no longer in the classroom has the skill and the ability to help tutor the student to complete the process.

The linking example shown above as a first prototype measures 170mm long is 20mm high and currently 5mm thick/wide.   The print used 9g of PLA to complete the project and had a price point of $0.22c.