3D Printed Adapted Fidget Toy

 

Challenge: Student have been present at a local craft market and had seen a stall where one of the products was a 3D Printed Octopus.   The student felt that they recognised the form and the shape from our school Market Day in 2026 and they wanted to produce their own version, with some additional personalisation.  The design was priced at $10.00 for the market.

Background: The student was indeed correct as observant and regular visitors to the site will recognise one of the Market Day Business from 2025 which was Ollie the Octopus.

When the student discussed it with the teacher while the file itself was easily able to be located as a publicly available .stl file the teacher spoke to the student about providing some individual change to the figure or the design to personalise it.

That came in the form of the student using the main Tinkercad interface to introduce both a crown and also their name in large lettering on the back of the design.

Size: Each of the legs are 50mm long.  The main body of the octopus was 60mm high and 50mm across.  The crown was an additional 10mm high at the top of the design.

Cost/Price: The print used 46g of regular PLA to complete the print.  There was a small amount of rafting between each of the joins of the linking on the legs of the design, which allows it to shimmer.

This gave the unit a price point of $0.93c to complete.  As noted in the introduction the price point for this item at the market was $10.00.

Timeframe: To complete this print the design took two hours and forty five minutes.   

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The name of the student in the form of the lettering came out from the design (as shown left).  Normally we encourage students to sink the lettering into the design so there is no chance, particularly on rounded sides of the design for any of the lettering to break off.

The student was extremely happy with the outcome so there is no further adaptions required or intended for this project.

Market Day 2027 - Coming Soon

 

We have a number of annual or bi-annual events at Auroa Primary School, with this year being a school production that means the next Market Day is scheduled for 2027 where our students will be engaged in running a business and using our skills and design techniques to design and create something special to sell to the local community.

In the slideshow below we went into detail for the products that were produced as well as looking behind the scenes of how they were made and developed.   

This event has a specific tab on this sites which also includes Mr Bloors amazing videos - you can click on the link to this here.    This slideshow below features the links to the products and information about the process that we went through to create each of them.

School Market Day Ideas - 2025 Overview

Every second year at Auroa Primary School we have a major School event, our School Market Day.  On this day students run businesses with a focus on invocation, creativity and personalisation and we have the local community come to school for the event to purchase items and see what our students have created.   This is a major undertaking for the school.   This slideshow is an updated selection of ideas that the students were involved in creating (from seven to twelve years of age) using iPads and Tinkercad, Mac Books and Sketchup (for laser cutting).   We have also included Sonic Vision Studios amazing summary videos of the events.

We are looking forward to being back at School at the end of January with our new classroom of students with new designs, creations and projects.

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.

Market Day 2025: Further Development

 

While our 2025 Market Day has been completed and will be revisited again in 2027 we are still working through some of the creations from the day.

In the case of one of the businesses, the iPad and iPhone stand group as we noted previously the entire run of products that they produced was sold prior to Market Day.

A number of people commented on the models when they were still available on the night and made additional orders, which the group has started processing.  The other unexpected development was that one of the students from another group saw the process, the product and wanted to adapt her own version of the stand, as a customised gift for a family member for Christmas.

The student who wanted to develop the design is a seven year old.  She was able to discuss the template for the other groups design, discuss the process of having the .stl file shared via an iPad and then begin the process of putting together a print.   The student again used 'Thingiverse' for the freely available coaster download and after some experiment was able to produce the 'Silver Fern' logo for the backing of the stand.   She then put a name on the reverse side and the design was completed.   She initially printed the version shown on the right, and when this had been completed she adapted the version shown left, which had larger dimensions and best suited the project.   As noted this is a seven year old.

Design One - The smaller stand.   This unit measures 50mm across was 60mm deep and had a 20mm base.  The back of the design was 65mm high.  This took one hour to print on the Bambu H2D.  It was a successful print just, in that it could hold a regular iPhone although the phone required some balance to ensure it worked as it could tip if the phone was placed too quickly.

As a result of this the student decided to increase the size of the stand, while all of the other details remained the same.   In Design Two - The larger stand measured 100mm wide was 70mm deep and had a 20mm base.   The back plate rose 65mm above the base of the unit.  This provided much more stability for the print and a phone was able to sit well on the stand.   In this version using also the Bambu H2D the print took just over two hours to complete.   As we have noted this could have been printed on one of the School Snapmaker machines however we would have expected double the print time and the finishing details around the logo and the letter would not be as detailed or precise.

Market Day Exemplars: Bag Tags

 

Challenge: Using creativity, innovation and personalisation students from a Y3/4 classroom create a unique product for our school market day.

Background: One group opted to look at something that they could design, would work with a degree of certainty produce in significant numbers relatively quickly.

The design brief centred around producing personalised tags for bags following the name badge/key ring example that has been featured many times on this blog.  The students thought that by personalising a number of the items with names of local sports teams or generic term that they would be able to create interest in their designs.   They also opted to use 'super' glow-in-the-dark filament as a further example of themselves thinking about something that might be eye catching or a point of difference.

Level of Difficulty: Low.  This is a basic version that requires some tinkering however it is usually the first task that we attempt to allow students to create - it has proven to be a nice simple introductory task for students and we have been able to replicate it since some of the very first prints on this blog ten years ago.   It was also possible to use the Snapmaker printers to complete this task while our newer machine (the Bambu H2D) was able to concentrate on larger or more complicated projects.

Another positive from the process was that the students developed their own template for this design and were able to adapt it to their preorders very easily so once the concept of having the letters sunken into the design was decided on they were just looking at some small additional changes to each design.

Size: There was obvious variation from the different designs a typical square design shown left was 100mm by 100mm with the smaller rectangular designs being reflected in their size.

Cost Profit: Again there was some variation however the basic square designs were determined on a $30.00 NZD basis to be costing $0.80c to produce and were sold for $3.00 making a basic profit of $2.20 per unit.   The vast majority of these units sold.  We did not opt to charge extra for the glow-in-the-dark filament.

Timeframe: Essentially one hour although there was slight variation on the size of the prints.   This was using the Snapmaker printers, using the newer Bambu model we would have expected this to be reduced in half.   Practically the students had the size of these items about right, potentially as a keyring they could have been smaller (about half of the size) as was created by students as general stock items filler to ensure that there were additional items that could be sold.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: Each of the student groups was developing their own business items and items, while this group met a number of key points that met the brief of this project the students opted for a safe design and process that they knew they could complete and something that we have worked successfully with younger students (as these students are seven and eight years old).  Ideally they could have developed this further.

Marketday 2025 - Major School Event This Friday

 

We are at the point where our students are putting the finishing touches on their school projects for Market Day 2025.

As part of the process we have also had the students writing material related to the process including identifying and explaining the process and the use of Tinkercad

This includes the students literacy, writing and creating and using graphic organisers to show how they have used the key values from this task - innovation, personalisation and creativity.

As the focus is very much on this special event we will be having a limited general focus on other subject this week.

3D Printed Octopus: Small

This is the 'small' size Octopus which is a companion print to a previous print series that was detailed on this blog.   As it is another design in the series the print information has already been published here and the design journey from the students etc is already documented.

The larger octopus shown was a three hour print (on the Bambu H2D) in this instance the smaller version was a one hour print.   

The large print had a 50mm body that was 50mm high and wide and the tentacles were 60mm long.  The small octopus (shown left) was 25mm wide and high and the tentacles were 30mm long.    The print used 12g of filament and had a cost of $0.28 (USD).   For a entire roll we could print 83 of these designs and it would cost $0.35 (NZD) for each unit.

Know the prints can be printed, assembled and put together by the students for a cost of $0.35c will all the students to set a price point that reflects this with the difference being the profit per unit.

We are realistically looking at printing these in significant numbers with up to six on a single print run.   

Roland Versa Sign Maker + iPhone Stands

 

We have detailed in depth the iPad and iPhone stands being developed by one of the groups of students who are seven and eight for our 2025 Market Day.

When we have been looking at finishing we have the products that we have left as there were removed from the printer, but we also have been experimenting with adding details or depths to prints.

In these examples here we have started looking at how we can add or enhance the presentation.   This question arose because with the Market Day we have several businesses that have asked for  themed iPhone or iPad stands.

Some of the logos and the details for the business have proven to be challenging to accurately recreate using the design features of Tinkercad.   The solution for the students was to switch to using the Roland Versa Sign Maker.   

This machine has its own tab on the blog feature some of the ways that we have used it with the students.   Essentially one of the functions of it is to create quality vinyl stickers which can then be applied to a surface, in this case the PLA which has been made via the 3D Printer.   The sticker is able to be printed via a .PNG file or a .JPEG.

In the examples shown we have used the logo of a local school and an online business.    For an additional feature we used QRMonkey.com to create a unique QR code which was also applied to the stand, which is shown on the front on the wedge and also at the back at the bottom of the print.

The stickers applied to the designs need no additional finishing and expected to remain on the stand long term.   They have been previously applied to a variety of surfaces such as laptops, metal water bottles etc and they have maintained their integrity despite being placed on a high use device.

3D Printed Exemplars: Bringing Up Standards

We have detailed in a series of recent prints how we have been producing 'exemplars' for our 2025 School Market Day.    We have been looking at making sure students reflect of their examples as presentation pieces.   

In some cases the students have tried to create prints that have details in them that are beyond the capability of the printers or specifically the removal of the rafting.   The print shown left had a motocross bike as its centre piece of the stand.   When the students removed the rafting the majority of the bike, due to the small details was also removed.  Rather than repeat the entire project the student challenge that has come out of the activity is for the students to remove the remaining aspects of the tyres (as shown in the photo) and then add something additional to the top of the iPhone stand that represents customer.

The total area for the print is 20mm by 100mm as the base.   The rest of the print meets the exemplar criteria and we are confident that by attaching it with a super glue type adhesive we can secure something to the top that will complete the design to ensure that it meets the 'exemplar' criteria.

The dimensions of the print as it stands is 100mm across, is 100mm long and is 90mm high.   Further additions to the print will increase the height.   The current print time for this design was three hours and it was very similar to the print that was designed and featured on this blog previously.

Another example is shown below - where again the base of the print has been successful the student had opted for a series of four flowers that were placed on the top of the design.   With careful removal of the rafting the flowers were unable to completely remain in place - one of the four remained intact.

Clearly when assessing the print once it had been finished the question would be if the print was dropped or had contact there would be a significant chance that the print would suffer damage.   The print currently measures 80mm across is 80mm long and is 80mm high.    The top of the design is 20mm wide and is 85mm long.

The student is going to use pliers to remove the final flower (shown left) and the use sandpaper to remove the remainder of the stalks.  With that removed the student is then going to create an original design which can be placed on the top of the design to complete the design.

While the spaces involved in both designs is not significant the students who are involved have the skill and the ability to create something that works in conjunction with the print that looks correct for the fit of the design.

This project is currently a work in progress and will be updated when it is completed.

3D Printed iPhone Stand - Market Day Exemplar

 

Challenge: To produce a unique, personalised object for the upcoming School Market Day 2025.

Background: This is from the same group as the previous post on this blog, the iPad stand.   As detailed previously is a market day business from a group of students who have been using Tinkercad to create a product, that is personalised and printed using our Bambu H2D printer.

The dimensions for the print are similar, with the exception of the targeting a phone.   The same base design was used from the previous design.   Again as noted we were able to AR/VR this design show it to the person who had ordered it via the students, have them discuss ideas for the phone stand, create the AR version (using the Tinkercad App).   The design was completed independently by seven and eight year old students the classroom.  They brought it completed to the teacher who was then able to print the design.    Again as we have noted previously the Bambu H2D allows us to produce a print with an extremely detailed finish.

An example of this is shown left - the 'Silver Fern' emblem design, which is situated above the words, has exactly no rafting or waste plastic associated with it, in the print shown left and above it is exactly how it was removed from the printer with only some minor rafting around the base of the design, which was easily removed.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - for a seven year old, the students have been using Tinkercad for this year in the classroom and that has been enough for them to create this independently using the skillset that they have developed.

Size: The dimensions of the print are as follows.  The print measures 120mm across is 90mm long and was primarily 10mm wide in most places.   The backing part of print which contains the name/logo was 90mm high.  These dimensions were appropriate to complete the task successfully.

Cost: The Bambu print design details identified that 32m of filament was used, the print used 98g of filament and the cost associated with this was $2.25.   To recoup the price of the filament for the group the price set by the students would reflect this, with anything additional to be considered profit.

Timeframe: The printing on the Bambu H2D took just under three hours - as noted repeatedly if we were using our wonderful (but slightly older) Snapmaker machines we would expect this to take twice the time. 

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: The wedge shape for the base was the same as it was on the original design (for the iPad example it was changed from a wedge to a 'Willy Wonka' style hat).     We also had additional space on the design where additional information or details could have been added.   Once again a discussion was had about changing the colour of the base print by using a Bambu multi nozzle printer to do the job. 

October 2024 - Project Updates

 We are currently at the half way point for the school holidays between term three and our final school year in New Zealand (term four).   We have a number of design projects that are looking for completion this term, before the end of the school year including finally completing the Dolls House Project, which you can see the overview here.

Our biggest school event coming up is the 2025 School Market Day.   You can see the amazing video from Mr Bloor, our AV teacher above.   We have detailed the process for our students which has been featured on this blog through the year - you can use the search bar, top right and undertake searches using the tags 'market day 2025'.   You can also view the view from our 2019 here below:

Our School Market Day in 2025 will take place afterschool on Friday 31st October 2025 at Auroa School.   Preorders can be picked up on the day and there are going to be a selection of goods that are available for purchase.  If you want to make any additional orders you can email the admin for this blog.

We are going to make selected projects from this blog available during the Market Day, this includes projects shared here such as the 'cyclops' challenge 

This is one of the ideas which has been developed from a brief for the students, which based on the results of the project including how it progressed with the work of the students, has become a viable Market Day item.   At the same time we are going to attempt to look at producing unique earrings for the event developed and created by students in the design process for the classroom.  You can see a teacher directed version of this project and a slideshow describing the entire process by clicking here.

We are also going to complete the process of designing the labelled, authentic and detailed geometric shapes that tie in as part of our Mathematics program at school (specifically for Geometry).

While we started the process for these objects the complete set was not printed prior to the end of term and we require adaption for this prints to ensure that they are viable for long term use.     In the example shown left you can see for instances that '5 faces' has been put too close to the edge of the object meaning that the 5 will not be sustainable in the future.

You can click on the link here to look at details about the original project.

We are continuing to explore examples of ideas, concepts and physical examples for the students moving forward.  An example of this is shown left with the iPhone stand turtle that a student had located.   We realised the print time (completed on the Bambu) made the print more than viable (as it was just over one hour) and while the student concerned had no input into the creation of this as with the other major one off prints that we build the idea is to get the students thinking about ways that they can take an idea such as this and then apply it to other projects and designs.

Market day 2025 - Final Print Runs

 

It is currently the school holidays in New Zealand between term three and term four, we will be back to our regular schedule of printing at that time.   In the meantime we are preparing for the major school event for the year as regular visitors to this site will be aware - our School Market Day for 2025 is taking place on Friday 31st October.

Challenge: To produce a unique product featuring personalisation, innovation and creation using the technology available to our students.

Background: Every student in the senior school at Auroa Primary School as well as the middle school classrooms.   As we have explained before we have seven groups that are operating, one of which is the 'Bath Toys' themed group.  These designs have been previously detailed and adapted and these versions are now the personalised versions that are available to customers.   These prints and the process to create them has been detailed on posts on this blog such as here.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - the design that is shown here has undergone several revisions, however all of the key features of the design have come from the main Tinkercad interface, and the students concerned have been able to revise the design several times.   An example of this is the adaption to remove several additional features to ensure that the design is as plain as possible.   Given that there are children who could be handling the designs (although we have also looked into age appropriate toys for the group as well for instance no under two year olds) the students removed earlier features like eyebrows and details on the hat or anything that could be interpreted as sharp.

Size: 80mm across, 80mm wide/long and 60mm high.  This was the dimensions of one of four designs that had similar dimensions that were printed simultaneously on the Bambu H2D.   The students have always intended to have a group of designs, three in total, and this is intended as the biggest of the three.

Cost: The machine indicated that to print the four designs on standard default settings that 200g of filament would be used and the cost would be $5.00 (USD) to complete the print (of four).

Timeframe: The completion of the print took eight hours in total on the Bambu H2D.   The project would not have been undertaken on the Snapmaker for the reasons that the duration would have been in the range of 16 hours and that would have also called into question the ability of the machine to print all four designs without any problems.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: There is a couple of issues that are still needing to be identified with the range of print.   The biggest issue which is not clearly visible is under.

As can be seen in the picture shown left, the base of the design has a small hole in it, which has occurred as a result of the printing process.   This is visible in the top left had corner of the print.   The student will be needing to problem solve this issue when they return next term.    By not water proofing the design at this point the design when tested has shown to fill with water and while it does not damage the integrity of the print, the students need to seal it.

The teacher has in mind using a hot glue gun or using a water sealant on this part of the design but the students are going to undertake the research and testing when they return from the school holidays.

3D Print School - Ongoing End of Term 3 Projects

 

In New Zealand we are approaching the end of the third of four terms in our school year.   It is an extremely busy time we have our 2025 Market Day approaching in October, Term Four.  We have also a significant number of class projects and general 3D Printing projects going on.    We are documenting as much of it as possible at the moment, and on this blog - we have also after ten years created a body of work that includes the most posts now in a calendar year for this site.

We are still, as always, interested in making contact with other schools, student and teachers who are posting about similar topics.   We have expanded our online posting to include Facebook and are going to expand out digital footprint in a number of ways.   

If you want to directly contact us you can do so by emailing myles.webb@gmail.com or visiting Auroa School Website.

An example is shown above left.   Thingiverse was used to download a generic public domain .STL design cake topper.   Tinkercad was then used to personalise the topper by adding an individuals name between the rods that connect the topper to the cake.   The design was then printed on the Snapmaker and took three hours.   The print was 5mm thick, 140mm high and 90mm wide.

We are continuing with our classroom challenges, where our class of 25 students are given a design task to complete.   Although the task can sometimes vary the usual progression is a challenge, a design in Tinkercad, followed by a VR/AR test, and finally test prints of selective project before revision.  We have recently documented this process and project with a basic 101 slideshow which is aimed at beginning teaching and delivering something to the classroom.   We would also like to point out that this is being completed by the four printers that we have school wide, our three Snapmakers and our Bambu H2D.

The earrings shown here are a final version measuring 60mm long, 30mm across and being 5mm thick.   The print time on the Snapmaker was 45 minutes - we also tested these with inserts to ensure that they hang well and that the prints have a small wow about them, in this case the print has been completed with glow-in-the-dark filament.  You can read further details about this process and view the slideshow by clicking on the link here.

DPE is Auroa Primary Schools Tech program with a range of rotations for the students.   During one of the blocks students use the School Laser Cutter to complete a bluetooth speaker which is then embedded into an MDF speaker box.    The students then have the option to personalise or create a unique project.   You can read further information about some of our projects here, or click on the link here to view some of our ideas from previous years including some of our students unique and creative designs.

Anyone wanting to travel to our school and witness this program first hand or contact our DPE teachers directly can do so via the email above.

Our Principal has set a challenge to our students to create a unique trophy for the end of year prize giving.   In this instance one of our class students (who is eight years old) has been working on a design, the latest version of which is shown left.   

There is a significant degree of precision in this project as ultimately the intention is to present a permanent trophy to our prize giving students, and is currently undergoing its fifth version as the student is meeting repeatedly with the Principal to look at options.

Currently the latest version is being produced on the Bambu H2D and is taking three and a half hours.   The print is measuring 120mm across is 120mm high and 5mm thick for the top and 80mm thick at the base.  You can view more details on this project by clicking on the link from its inception here and see further progress here.

Market Day 2025 is approaching fast.   Each student in our senior school (four classes) and our Y3/4 classroom has been divided into businesses of around four students.

Each business has been tasked with creating a product or series of products that has the key driver of innovation (one of our school values) and personalisation.    Although groups have varied a large number have opted to use our 3D Printers, laser cutter or sticker machine as part of the production process.   You can click on the tab located here or use the search bar top right to find projects tagged for our 2025 version of this event or look back on our last event in 2023.   We are more than happy to provide these ideas for you if you are a student or teacher for a school event.

Another of our class challenges is to produce a physical set of geometric shapes, labelled and identified as belonging to our school that could potentially be used to help students with their Mathematical shape identification

We have asked students to design eight of the core shapes, ensure that they are labelled correctly and have information on them.  You can read a more detailed description of the projects and see our first examples that the students have produced here.   Again this is a class run projects of twenty six students which we are attempting to complete while we also focus on our other projects.

As we have mentioned we are very much happy to discuss any of the projects that we have detailed here on this blog, we are happy to help out with anything if you want to drop us a line or need advice etc.   We have a number of students and teachers who have directly or indirectly contributed to this work and we can also put you in touch with the relevant person responsible.

3D Printed Adaptations: Market Day 2025

 

Original Project: Bath Toys - Market Day 2025.    How has this changed? The major changes between the prints and the original (Snapmaker) print was the finish, which looks slightly less blocky, however there are some crucial subtle differences.   Firstly the Snapmaker version has two or three small holes that came in process of printing, once water has entered the print at these locations (remembering of course that 20% of the inside of the print is filled in, the rest of it is hollow).    Originally the group had brainstormed ideas and come up with the plan to use water proofing spray to ensure that the print did not sink - however the Bambu version has slightly superior finishing and it does not appear to be required.

Finally the print times are the massive difference between the two, the Bambu H2D prints in half of the time, in addition multiple prints can easily be loaded on the plate.   The original design for the large size for this print was four hours - the Bambu H2D means that the print time has been reduced in half.

Original Project: Key Rings (Personalised) Market Day 2025

There is little difference between the quality of the prints although there is a better polished version with the Bambu version shown left.

While the rafting is minimal the biggest change between the two print is of course the time to complete the print - the two and a half Snapmaker version when the print is switched to Bambu takes under half this time to complete.

You can see the difference between this print and the original by clicking on the link here.

Original Project: iPad and iPhone Stands (Personalised) Market Day 2025

There is a better finish on the Bambu version shown left.  The biggest design differences would be in the lettering on the back, in the Snapmaker version required a tool to remove the rafting around the lettering, some of which required a high degree of precision to remove successfully.

Again there was minimal rafting with this print however the time difference between the two was stark - as the Bambu version came in at under two hours while the Snapmaker version took around the four hour mark.

It needs to be repeatedly stressed that the Bambu printer that we are using for these projects is brand new (we have had it on site for less than two weeks) and the wonderful Snapmaker printers that we have have been on site and used non-stop since 2021.

Laser Cut Truck: Market Day 2025

Laser Cut Market Day Project (Seniors) Construction/Dump Truck.

As we approach Market Day 2025 not only do we have the students from our classroom working on products and items some of our senior students are doing likewise.

One of the groups is featuring the school laser cutter which has been used to produce these trucks.   They have been cut from MDF/Bamboo 5mm composite wood.   Cutting each of the trucks takes just over half an hour.   Students did not design this truck the file for it was sourced online.    As one of the main components of our market day is personalisation - we have designs where there a logo or a name is designed into aspects of the truck.

The truck needs to be wood glued once the component parts have been cut out and removed from the sheet of MDF.   Some of the truck has to be held in place with masking tape until the glue has set.

The dimension of the laser cut was 400mm long from the front to the back of the print, is 130mm wide at the base of the bed and 200mm high at the mid point.    

The project could potentially have some additional features added to it via some of our other school technology such as the sticker machine.    The wheels are currently not working off an axel they are being held in place by glue - it could potentially for the students to investigate further.   We also have the ability to produce additions to the truck using the 3D Printer.

As a long term project we also have the ability to produce rubber tyres using the 3D Printer if we wanted to look at extending our students further.   Currently the latch on the back of the bed of the truck works and can be fastened and unfastened.

3D Printed Market Day 2025 - Update: Beads

 

We are currently in the process of preparing for our 2025 School Market Day - the date of which has now be confirmed for October 31st.

One of the classroom groups has been looking into the process of producing jewellery and individualised beads, spelling out the names of the people who purchase the items.

The students designed each of the letters of the alphabet, in addition to this the group have also printed a range of the letters using glow-in-the-dark filament as well as a range of colours and filament types.

The rationale behind this is to print a significant number of the beads now so that as the market day approaches there are already a significant number of prints made (which we don't anticipate changing significantly between now and the market day) and while we will have the students add to the project before then this allows there to be less pressure moving forward.

3D Printed Market Day: Bath Toys

 

Our groups are currently preparing for our 2025 Market Day at school, which is being held at the start of next term (so this term we are completing the process of making of the personalised items).    As we have stated before one of the groups is based around the idea of bath toys.

They are now producing their items for our school event.   They have been testing the prototypes and also looking at refining their original ideas to ensure that they are unique but also viable to be sold for a nominal fee.

As we have detailed previously with a 20% infill as a default for nearly everything we print here in most cases the 3D print as a result is buoyant and will float when placed in water.

The group came up with the idea of producing a range of Octopi called 'Ollie the Octopus' which are produced in a range shown left.   The students have created features on their designs and also added some basic accessories for the design, although this created several challenges.

One of the most pressing has been the fact that when the print floats in water if it is too top heavy it will tip over instantly as is the case with the angled top hat shown left.   Students have addressed this issue by ensuring that the print is balanced.   The same issue arose earlier this year with our boat building challenge.

This has taught the student a valuable lesson in balance.  We also have had opportunities to test the prints.  Our junior students have a morning once a week where they have a discovery time at this time they are able to create and explore.   This past Friday one of the activities involved 3D Printed designs which have featured on this blog in the past.   These designs are now several years old however there has been no affect on the prints since they have been completed and they are constantly used as a point of reference.

We included prints shown left such as the butterfly from 2022, the Amazon Dolphin from 2023.    Students were able to interact with this prints, some of which floated and some of which if they had a hole in them, as a result of the printing process,  

Auroa School Kickstarters: Part Two

 Our students are involved in a major school event this year, we are again holding a School Market Day - where students are tasked to use the technology at our school to produce something that features innovation and personalisation.   The entire senior school at Auroa Primary School which runs from Y4-8 are creating projects for this event later in the term, this description and linking is focussing on the videos from our classroom, however if you click on the school link you will see the additional videos on the school page.

Group: The Four Kiwis - Ollie the Octopus

Innovation: Students have used Tinkercad to create an original designed bath toy.   The design for the creatures was created by the students from scratch using the main Tinkercad interface.   

The inspiration for this came from this print idea on our blog from 2023 relating to using the 3D Printer to create bath toys.   These students expanded on this further by taking that idea, based around the fact that with a default twenty per-cent infill that most 3D Prints will float.

Students further used the AR/VR function from the Tinkercad iPad App to generate large scale models of the design.

The students are eight year old students who have been using Tinkercad for the past year in the classroom.  

Personalisation: The bath toys from the outset have had the back of the designs where the students have engraved or sunken in either their initials or their first name.   The idea from the students is for a group of these designs to spell out a name or have a message when they are arranged in sequence.

You can view details of the original project by clicking on this link here.   You can view all of the Kickstarter projects for the school at this link here.

Group: MASM

Innovation: The students were interested in creating a range of candles, which while it was creative didn't particularly tick the other main boxes that were the intention for the project - that was taken care of when the student who has been developing her own version of the flexi-toys wanted to include one, with a personalised name or message, with the purchase - thus ensuring that the innovation is met.

Flexi-animals or linked name shapes have been a mainstay of student designs on this blog for a number of years, this group features a student who has started the process from scratch, designing everything using Tinkercad and following instructional videos previously made by a former student.   

Personalisation: The flexi-animals are customised for the person who purchases them with either a message on the design or a name.  You can click on this link to view this project.

3D Printed: School Holidays in New Zealand

We have a two week break currently in New Zealand we have a number of exciting projects coming up here for our students.  First and foremost next term we have our 2025 Market Day.  This is slightly different from our previous versions, this year the students have created Kickstarter inspired videos for each of their products, members of the community etc.  You can click on our School website and then follow the different Kickstarter Links from the main labels at the top of the page.    We currently have four of our students project videos uploaded, with an additional three to come once the school holidays are completed.

As shown left students have continued to look at experimenting with different examples and looking for personalisation and innovation projects.

We have allowed students to create a range of projects that meet this brief, including adapting examples that they have been able to locate (such as the Minecraft inspired diamond sword shown left that was located from Thingiverse.

We also have students who are continuing to use Tinkercad to work on their individual CAD design skills.   

We have detailed the progress of a number of students in the classroom who have been developing their linking skills  this has been an important part of the students looking to create a version of flexi animals.  

As we have noted in the past students have progressed to the point that they are experimenting  with the linking and the last step is applying their linking and skills to examples like the snake shown left.

Students have determined that this meets the criteria of innovation and personalisation.