Refining and Reworking Basic Prints: Junior School

 

We have written at length with some of the processes and ideas that students start with when engaging in the 3D Printing and design process for the first time.

As we have previously detailed with projects on this blog over several years  - a simple personalised print is usually created quickly by students, such as a typical example shown left.   

One of the challenges for students is how to refine and improve on an original basic design.  We are encouraging our students to refine and detail the prints - as we have been recently documenting.  In the original Harry design shown here was a basic rectangle shape, with the addition of a hole and a name badge.   The print measured 120mm across was 80mm high and was 5mm wide.  Two hour print.

An example of having one of the students remaking this (a reminder that our students in this current class are junior students, Y3 which in this case makes them seven years old).  

In the example shown left the student wanted to take the design and make some changes, the idea that he came up with was to remove sections of the print to give the impression that bites had been taken out of it.  He started with a basic design (shown below) and then in the same design printed again this time with the sections of the print removed.   The dimensions for the print remained the same as the 'Harry' example however the total print time was reduced as the missing sections of the print, where the bite sections were taken from, did not require to be printed.   The bite in the name plate served the purpose of the hole.

In the example shown left, is the locket design.   Basic versions of these have just the name of the students, a basic shape, such as the heart shown left and a way to attach it to the design.  This design also has three other cartoon figures above the name and below it.    

These are considerably easy to design by students with limited experience, in this case a Y3 student who has no previously experience in using Tinkercad or 3D Printing.  The print measures 80mm high was 60mm across and was 5mm thick.   

A challenge for the student to take this design and upscale it resulted in the following print that was made by a high functioning junior school student.   The design has a number of aspects to it.

The student choose to combine three different hearts into the one shape.   In each aspect of the design the student featured part of their name and also their signature.   The print was just under two hours, which was considerably longer than the initial design, which was forty five minutes.

The reimagined design was nearly half as large again however this was because the print had three elements to it, as opposed to the single design that was first.

The student is also going to design a pair of earrings that will work in conjunction with the designs shown above.  The student is going to experiment with the location of the hole to ensure that the earrings are balanced and hang correctly.

3D Printed Junior School Progressions Part Two

Challenge: For novice and junior (seven year old) students to show progression with designs

Background: As detailed on this blog we have students who are junior in our school system as young as seven years old.  One of the perceptions was that designing using CAD software might be somewhat beyond them, however as has been stated many times over the past two years this is simply not the case.  The students have shown time and time again they they have the concepts and ability to do exactly this.   Using Tinkercad as a design tool  to either design from scratch or taking common designs from the main interface to then take them and personalise and add details to them.   At a basic level for some of the students who are Y3, moving into the classroom for the first time to use the designs that can be created by a single click as a starting point.   The designs shown above left are simple forty minute prints.  Built into the design is the opening and closing mechanism.

The design left came from these early sessions and then the student involved wanted to look at expanding the design and including additional elements in the design.  Clearly this was destined for another family member, and the student wanted to experiment by adding something extra.  Similar to how she was able to select the locket design, she then added the text, added a star and a heart to complete the design.   Once the student had combined all of these elements she made the decision to upscale the design from the two different versions of the same print shown above.  In the above designs each was a forty minute print.   By upscaling the design below, and adding the elements the student design was increased to one that had a two hour print time.

One lesson the student learned from the project was the need to enlarge both portions of the design.  She upscaled the base, which contained the name, but did not do likewise with the top.  This meant that the design was lop sided and needed further adjustment but this is excellent practical experience for the student at a small scale.

The student working on the unique junior dragon as detailed previously on this blog has continued to refine her design.  This is an example of a more challenging project, but again the student involved is a junior, that is a student who is eight years old.  It is her second year completing CAD design projects having been creative in her previous year this project is designed to push her skills.  Each version of this dragon is taking about an hour to print, the initial version, shown left with the adaptation is taking about an hour to print.    

As you can see the student has opted to significantly shift the location of the wings, incorporate spikes into the design.   The student has been encouraged to continue to do so - the design has elements that are evolving and she has been encouraged to look at art and creations in literature to add elements and further parts to the design.  The next stage is the student reshaping and redesigning the head and in particular the mouth area, she is being encouraged to think about the length of the head and sculpting and shaping the teeth, which while it is challenging it is encouraging to see the motivation and the effort that she is putting in to completing this.

Y3 Junior 3D Printing in the Classroom

Challenge: Introduction to 3D Printing for a junior classroom, a project for a beginner to complete.

Background: There are a range of skills in the classroom from students who have worked with Tinkercad and 3D Printing, from the students who were in the classroom for 2023 and those who are involved and creating for the first time.

One of the very easiest designs, and a very positive starting point for students is to create a locket.   This task has been detailed before and we have been revisiting it again.   It is a task the requires one step in addition to choosing a template from the main interface.   The example that is provided here has come from a student with no experience who has set a goal and being able to achieve it.   You can read the details of the project here when it was last completed in March 2023.

3D Printed Beginners Task: Locket

Challenge: For students to personalise a locket.

Background: We have mentioned over many years now that the students from our school are essentially using Tinkercad for nearly all of our 3D Printed design.   We have looked in the past at switching to other programs etc but in terms of free design CAD software that will work with our iPads.  We also have a very young class of students - although the design process is still exceptional - one of our youngest students is proving the most adept at creation and she has just turned seven.

One thing that needs to be produced and considered is how you can use the printers to produce projects quickly that might be positive for a class of students.   This is where the range of talents of students need to be taken into account, and this was a quick example that utilised the Tinkercad creative library.   The locket shown left is a pre created design which the student concerned wanted to personalise, so with the design already made they then needed to include their name with it - with this complete and the design printed in a very short time the next thinking point, the next challenge was 'what could we do next?' what would be a use for something like this.   This started a variety of discussion relating to the size of the box and how it could be modified to store additional items.

Size: This measures 40mm across and 40mm high with a depth of 10mm for the entire print - the idea being it is something that could be massed produced easily with a minimum of student input.

Timeframe: One hour on standard settings.   The purpose of this print is to produce something that will get the students thinking about design and about making things that would be a step forward from this.

Level of Difficulty: Low - the key components of the design have already been completed, the student in terms of personalising it only needed to introduce the text of their name to the print, which was incredibly simple.   This was a single step process which then allowed the student to focus on the next steps.

Next Steps for the Student/What we would do Differently:

The mechanism for the locket to open and close fascinated some of the students and ideally we would like one or two to undertake to try and replicate it or reproduce it at some point in the future.   The entire process is designed to ensure that the student is successful easily and then starts thinking about the next steps that they might take with their production and working.