Roland Versa Sign Maker - Labels for Basketball

 

Please note the postings for this site for the week are going to look slightly different for the next five days or so as we are in attendance at the NZAIMS Games in Tauranga, New Zealand. 

We will continue to be posting as we have a number of projects that are ongoing although we are not going to be starting anything new this week directly as we are working remotely.

This week with Basketball it has been pleasing to know that we can indirectly showcase our technology in a couple of ways.  We have already posted how we have created some school specific 'gifts' for the teams that we are playing against in the form of the super sized glow-in-the-dark key rings.    

On a practical level for the team we wanted to ensure that each student while they had a drink bottle obviously made sure that they had their own individualised bottle and so for this purpose we used the schools Roland Versa Sign Maker.   We used the students Mac Book and Gimp to create an image which we then converted to a png file.   Once it was in this form it was an easy transition to the school sticker machine and a set of team individualised stickers were made for each of the students drink bottles.   

This task was completed independently by a senior student who is a Y8 student at our school.

If you want to see examples of how we have used the sticker machine to produce signs for our rubbish bins to address our recycling you can click on the link here.  You can also read a previous post about this process for a more generic team sticker from 2024 by clicking on the link here.

If you want to see additional school related projects that demonstrate how we've used the Roland Versa Sign Maker (also known as our sticker machine) you can click on the link here.

School Gift NZAIMS Games 2026

 

Challenge: To produce a unique gift for other schools when competing in a special event.

Background: This project has featured already a number of times.   In its original guise it was created by a then eight year old student as a 'filler' option to fill up some of the space created by Market Day 2025.

Based around the success of this print we also used a number of times as a gift or a token to other schools or educators or visitors to our school.    We are attending the 2026 NZAIMS Games in Tauranga as Auroa Primary School are competing in this years Girls Basketball Tournament.

For the purposes of the tournament we wanted something that would be both memorable and striking.   Our design of the cyclops which we are also making available can be seen here.

We have made the decision to take the original design which was 70mm across and increased it to 200mm across.

Resources used to complete the print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Glow-in-the-dark Filament: Bambu Brand.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this was originally completed by an eight year old student who worked independently on the design.   As we have described many times in the past this kind of basic activity is completed as an introductory tasks for students.

Size: The novelty print is oversized to create a 'talking point'.   By choosing to print as glow-in-the-dark filament the print had an extra layer of 'talking point'.    By choosing to do both although it had a slight increase in the price point it was not significant.

Cost/Price: To produce this unit the print uses 65g of filament to complete.  This has a price point of $1.31.  There was no waste plastic produced by this print.

Timeframe: To complete this print the H2D took two hours on the regular settings.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: Nil.

Room Seven Auroa Primary School August 2026 Update

 

We're walking on spreading our students design and creation skills by having them mentor another junior school student at Auroa Primary School.   Our class which are the main designs featured on this page are eight and nine year olds, so the buddy students that we are working with are younger than that.    Obviously creating a simple name badge or tag is one of the basic fundamental tasks for our students and we have also been looking at ways to enhance that for the new students - such as producing prints involving 'Super-Glow-In-The-Dark' prints for this basic design shown left.  

In some examples its about the experience of something new, one of the best all time questions about this, from the student who designed it was the question that came the following day when they had a brief catch up about the print - "how long does the batteries last and when do you need to change them?"

We've continued to develop our 'Ooshie Stand/Lego Stand Ideas' to consider ways to display items as detailed here on the post.   We are yet to print out a full set of these for the students but one of the aspects of the project has been using Pic Collage to apply filters to their designs and consider what this design might look like.

This image shown left has an applied filter.   The storage was projected to the base of the slide on the school playground.  The image left shows the slide (blue bottom right hand corner).   The filter has then altered some of the poles and other playground equipment.   The scenery in the top left is the slope that leads down to a 'pump' track for our school.

We've been further exploring more about our 'movement' challenge using Tinkercad to create a 3D Print that has a movement theme.   We have not been able to print every print in these sequence however a number of students have already altered their designs to include a range of ideas, concepts.

This activity shown left involves creating a basic maze.  We've made examples of these before on a small scale in this instance the design is being refined as a virtual design rather than going through several prints first.

The students are considering obstacles that they might be able to include into the design - and a crucial element of this is the ball that will be used to challenge for the activity - while a ball is possible to 3D Print discussions about a rubber ball being more suitable is engaging the students and also involving them in some physical form.

We're also preparing for the NZAIMS Games and while this is a sport based activity which is a month away (and is not technology based) it is however a good opportunity to spread the words and the works of our school.

We regularly leave prints that have been featured on this blog in different locations (around the country) when attending various events (we gift them to schools we visit, when meeting other educators or leave them in public locations) and are going to do this again during the Girls Basketball Tournament.

3D Printing at the NZAIMS Games

 

Our wonderful rural school is attending the NZAIMS Games in Tauranga later this term competing in Girls Basketball.   As such we are competing as part of over 450 schools and 14,000 students.  One of the things is that we like to highlight something different about our school.

Regular visitors to this blog will potentially remember that this badge can out as a 'stock filler' item for our 2026 Market Day.

This item is a small item that we will be giving to the teams that we will be playing against as a thank you for the opportunity.  This item printed in super 'glow-in-the-dark' filament.   This print uses 12g of PLA to complete the print.   It took thirty five minutes to complete (including the warm up time of six minutes).   It has a price point as determined by the Bambu Studio Labs is $0.24c.

We have also been working on the 'sports trophy' design that we detailed in yesterdays blog post.   We have completed the first print using again the glow-in-the-dark filament.

The photograph shown left is an example of the details that are possible using the Bambu H2D.  The name at the front is 5mm or so in height.  The student has also decided to have the font go all the way through the design as shown in the top part of the design.

This could benefit from having the font more evenly spaced out to include a second line.  In the 3D Print design on Tinkercad the font is visible although small and it is a good example of a short term print illustrating what adjustments need to be made following a review of the print by the student who is working on the project.  In this instance as well as it is essentially a commission project he has been able to speak with the person who requested the design and receive feedback about how it is progressing and what changes need to be made.