Market Day Exemplars: Flexi-Trees

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

Background: This group had a number of students who operated towards a common goal.   While they initially had a focus on candles the revision of the key areas for development meant that the students also looked into flexi-animals (initially) before pivoting to Christmas trees as the form of decoration as the connection between that and they felt would make a better point of sale due to the time of the year.   The student who drove this group also decided early on with consultation with the teacher to make an attempt to develop the ability to create a flexi-animal or a flexi-toy.   These are available at length online but the student wanted to undertake the process herself from start to finish and develop her CAD and design skills to master it.

This process has been completed before by several students who have now graduated the school however we also had these students create original 'flipped' video content which the students were able to use to create the linking that was required.   This journey has been documented in depth on this blog during the course of the year, starting with this initial post that was made in May.  During the course of the year the student was able to produce many prototypes to complete the project - you can locate this by using the tag 'flexi animals 2025' in the search bar or clicking on examples like the one here.

In addition to this the group also decided that others wanted to create candles and that finally another student who could not master the linking in time for the Market Day wanted to produce a range of key rings instead that could be used and sold as stock filler items at the Market Day.

Level of Difficulty: High - a number of students have attempted to complete the process this year, this is the first student, or group of students to do so successfully.  The linking can be produced automatically now as a feature of Bambu studio but there are a number of design steps that need to be completed to be successful.   With regards to the badges the student who produced these was capable of doing so easily and has shown a good level of confidence and design with using Tinkercad so it was very much in her wheelhouse.  As we have noted numerous times on this blog the students involved in these activities are seven and eight year old students who have been using Tinkercad for either one or two years.

Size: The prints (trees) were featured in detail on this blog in a seperate post - they measured 120mm long were 100mm wide and 10mm thick.  The badges were also identified as excellent 'stock filler' and were featured in a post that can be located here.  They were 70mm by 40mm and were 10mm wide.

Cost/Price: The trees were settled price wise at $3.00 each and had a production point of either $0.80 NZD or $0.90 NZD for glow-in-the-dark filament.  As we sold (out) of the trees at a $3.00 price we made a profit per unit of either $2.20 or $2.10.   For the badges we sold them at $2.00 NZD and they cost $0.40c for filament giving a return of $1.60 per unit.

Timeframe: We used the Bambu H2D to print the trees, each of which took just under or just over one hour (it depending on the lettering as each was personalised or individualised and had a message or name sunk into the design of it.   We did attempt to complete them on the Snapmaker machines however it was clear that the Bambu had superior finishing which was expected given the age of the machine.

The badges also took one hour although these were completed on a seperate machine and generally prints in this case are running at twice the time of the other.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The student is now returning to the original design idea and applying the linking that she has developed to animals to complete the process started early in the year.

Market Day Exemplars: iPad and iPhone Stands

 

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

Background: 

This has been a design and creation that has been visited several times in the past and we were able to use some of the examples previously created by students as a discussion point for this year. This was a detailed example from 2018, this example from 2019 included a storage draw beneath the stand or an example from last year created by a seven year old from our school.

This group in the classroom had some of the students who design ideas and creations had been some of the strongest items this year.   They had originally looked at ideas but by focussing on the three criteria for our 2025 School Market Day the students settled on looking to design personalised iPad and iPhone/cellphone stands.

As a basis for their designs they used the stand template that is available on the main Tinkercad interface.   They were then able to resize, rework and develop this design template to include personalisation in form of the names of the person or the things that they might have liked.  An early example of the prototype which they ended up using was this exemplar of an iPad stand which had a high degree of personalisation.   Following this example they also used Tinkercads AR/VR tool to prototype some of the designs and then send them to people who had ordered them for further feedback to develop their ideas.   

The final major development step for the students was to include the Roland Versa Sign Maker to apply a vinyl sticker to some of the designs.  This meant that they could include details and a finish that could not be completed using scribble to design in Tinkercad.  

You can see the original post about the evolution of this project by clicking on the link here. 

Level of Difficulty: Medium.   The initial template for this work did indeed come from the Tinkercad interface however the students were able to develop it further to ensure that each one became unique with a high degree of design and creation.   There was a bit of trial and error with the additional shapes and cartoons that were added to the stands, some being more successful than others.  

An example of this approach is seen below - a student wanted a sports logo from a team, the students from my classroom felt the design would be too challenging but what they were able to do was locate a coaster, invert the coaster and then imbed the coaster into the design for the stand.

Size:These were some of the largest items that were produced for the Market Day this year by our classroom and that by its very nature limited the numbers that we were able to produce.  They also had a degree of personalisation in that each one was unique.   The phone stands typically were 80mm across and 80mm wide or deep.  The iPad stands had to be larger and were 120mm by 120mm.

Cost/Profit: We created a price scale of $5.00 for the iPhone stands and $7.00 for the iPad stands.  This was essentially just above break even point.   Once we had the concept developed and worked on the students realised that they could have raised this point however they felt that they would not be able to do this as this would disadvantage the people who had preordered.   Given the response from the Market Day that was created by customers seeing them for the first time there were a number of people who attempted to order them at this point.

Timeframe: Six hours for a iPad stand and three and a half hour for the iPhone stand (this was using the Bambu printer in terms of finishing and also timeframe.  We could have opted for the Snapmaker but the fine detail we would expect would typically not be there.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:  The timeframe for each of these objects and the design that went into them limited what could be produced by the students and they couldn't practically produce something quickly in response to that.  We would potentially develop things such as the group using Tnkercad to create Minecraft versions of their designs further.

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.

Market Day Exemplar: Bath Toys

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

Background: This group had a number of challenges that occurred during the project.   When we started brainstorming ideas as we have established a standard PLA default infill of 20% means that nearly all basic designs will float - and motion can easily be achieved.  As documented in the past we had a 'flying' butterfly that was created and used in 2023 as documented on this blog

There was several attempts and versions of this project to try and get the designs to the point that the students were happy with it and ultimately they were not able to achieve this.   The pivot that took place at the last moment with this was to revert to a design that was located online (Thingiverse again as we had done with locating material related to Minecraft with the nightlight.)

This meant the students were able to meet the obligations for the school Market Day (based on the orders that they had received) and produce a print that met expectations of the product.   They had to move away from the larger designs which they had been working on, which had limits to its ability to be water tight.   

Level of Difficulty: Low- the group spent several months working on this design and ultimately opted for essentially a design that someone else had created.  Ideally they would have gone through the process of linking and used this for their own design.  The students did alter some of the designs (including adding a top hat for instance as shown in the photograph below).

Size: We marketed three different sizes of print based around the printing time there the units took between one and three hours to print.  The smallest print had 70mm tentacles and a 30mm head put to the larger print which had 100mm tentacles and a 50mm head.   We were limited with the number of large prints that we were able to produce.

To enhance the presentation of the units for sale on the Market Day the decision was made to display the units in a small glass fish tank that allowed the units to 'float' and be on display.

Cost/Profit: We looked at marketing the large Octopi for $3.00 and had a estimated cost to produce of $1.70.   With hindsight these could have been price higher as we found that something of a demand for them, and of all them were sold out in a short space of time when the event started.

The medium and small prints made a relatively smaller profit, again we would probably have charged a larger amount for these as they sold our quickly.

Timeframe: Three hours for the largest Octopus, two hours for a medium and one hour for the small.  We needed to produce a large amount of these designs so printing 

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: This has been more or less addressed in the course of the post, as noted.   The linking would have been the biggest long term aspect of the designs, but while the group investigated they decided against it.

As a reminder you can search this blog for the project by searching for 'Octopus' or 'Bath Toys'.

Market Day Projects from Auroa Primary School

This slideshow is intended to be a suggestion of a number of projects that our students have worked on involving digital learning, use of technology with an emphasis on innovation, creativity and personalisation.

We have a school market day every second year and we have a community evening with good designed and created by the students for sale.   The slideshow shows original examples of 3D Printing projects and laser cut projects.   You can contact us for further information.

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.