Junior Design Challenge: Physical TNT Combination

 

Challenge: For students to combine a physical novelty object with a second object created using Tinkercad.

Background: There were a number of objects that featured in our 2025 School Market Day, one of the most popular novelty items was a small TNT Minecraft box, that was a candle holder.  It had been located from Thingiverse where it was available as a free download.  We used it in conjunction with the Glow-in-the-dark-PLA.

In this challenge we gave the students a physical copy of the TNT which is 20mm by 20mm.   The students were challenged to use this item to then create an original item to work in conjunction with the item.   Initially a lot of the students tended to just copy the TNT rather than having an object work in conjunction with that - we highlighted the examples and encouraged the students to think outside of the box.

The first range of designs were typically as shown left.   The actual TNT is shown on the right, with the students interpretation of it shown on the left.   The dimensions are close however the student could have further refined the design and put more details into it.   

The student also chose to make the copy instead of looking at ways to have the object interact with something else.

The student shown left used a basic design and then added several other aspects to it.  The original TNT is the orange design in the middle of the picture.  The seven year old student then added the 'pac-man' like figures to the left and the right of the TNT box before then adding another layer, the red TNT which can all be seen in the photograph.

The student could have put additional time into the designs and improving the scale and composition.

Further development was shown when students moved to creating something that combined different elements.   Obviously shown left is the TNT at the base of the design and then bridge was created over the top of it, with a further detail that two cars from the main Tinkercad interface were added.

This activity is being added to the 'non 3D Printing' Tinkercad design challenges that are featured on a slideshow that is located on the blog here.

Market Day Exemplar: Minecraft Night Light

 

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

Background: This Market Day 2025 item started off early with a combination of Minecraft and the use of glow-in-the-dark PLA filament which we have experimented with in the past.  As noted over time the filament has improved significantly and we have seen improvement in the colour options available and the ease at which printing can be completed (which historically in our experience was not always the case).   You can view previous glow-in-the-dark prints here such as 2018 Glow-in-the-dark horse or 2022 recap of previous Christmas decorations of which the glow-in-the-dark has featured significantly.    You can look on the tab labelled 'Guide/Special Projects' for the full range of these activities or use the search bar for activities tagged with this label.

In this instance the students also wanted to organise objects that they associated with Minecraft and while they initially attempted to recreate some of the designs, and were relatively successful they also quickly located a number of items that were available on public domain sites - primarily Thingiverse

The process involved the students locating the items that they were interested in, considering if it was a viable print or not - and experimenting with different elements.   Originally early versions of the project (in May) had a laser cut box underneath the base.   Later on as the students developed ideas the decision was made by the students to use additional boxes of TNT to raise the base off the ground.   Personalisation which was a major feature of the Market Day 2025 Projects was addressed by having a gap between the TNT and Minecraft logo.  Development in June saw the students experimenting with different PLA for the names and displays and using AR/VR to project additional items onto the stand.

Level of Difficulty: Low - the emphasis was on the layout for the designs, the students were able to use designs that were available and the creation of the names to be inserted into the design was someone that the seven and eight year olds were easily able to create, test for the size for the unit and put it together - there had to be some variation for the number of letters of students in their name, which required larger lettering.

Size: The wooden base for the stand was 140mm across.   The standard sword designs were 80mm and the TNT was a 20mm cube.

Cost/Profit: For a standard nightlight we used four TNT boxes - each one was just under 0.20c to produce on the top and three underneath - a total of $1.40.   The sword was close to 40c as was the Minecraft and name plate.   In total assuming the MDF for the base of the print was $1.00 - the entire print could be produced $3.60.   We used standard LED lights available from a local dollar store which cost $4.00.   This gave the project a total of just over $7.50 - and the students decided the cost per unit and wanting to make a small profit that they would set a price of $10.00.   As we have mentioned throughout the process it was not intended as a profit making process - it was focussed more of the three aspects of innovation, creativity and personalisation.

Timeframe:  The stand took ten minutes to print, the TNT was 45 minutes per box on the Snapmaker.  Each of the three additional elements on the stand took just under one hour - the entire print was able to be completed in approximately seven hours, this was done on the Snapmaker and thanks to the extensive testing that we have been completing comparing machines we would anticipate if this was done on the Bambu H2D we would anticipate it would take half of the time.   Once the elements had been produced we also required to glue them into place using a universal plastic glue.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students: The students experimented with creating their own designs however they were never satisfied with the details that they were able to produce.  This product took a considerable amount of time to produce but was sold out in the process and we could have produced more.  The LED lights were sourced locally from a dollar store a better long term plan would have been purchasing them online from an overseas supplier.