Teaching with Tinkercad

 

We are class of students from rural New Zealand who are seven and eight years old.  The students creativity, innovation and enthusiasm never ceases to amaze me and I am always trying to encourage the students.

We like to celebrate our success - such as a simple thing like recently we discovered the Facebook Page 'Tinkering with Tinkercad' has updated its page banner to include one of the original designs from our recent use of Tinkercad in the classroom to create a Minecraft object or creature.

Its little things like this which make a huge difference and why we continue to share ideas and concepts from a school in South Taranaki, New Zealand to the wider world.

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: 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.

3D Printing: Extending the Use of the Bambu

This print was another version of the DPE speakers that we have mentioned previously, that is the set up to house the speakers for a blue tooth speaker set up inside of this casing, which in other examples had been provided by the laser cutter as seen in this post.

This was a significant print from a senior member of our school, and was a significant undertaking using Tinkercad to design it.  

The print really tested the limit of the Bambu H2D Printer.  It took a full twenty hour hours to complete the print and used close to half a roll of filament (which is a price of $15.00 based on $30.00 NZD a roll).   There was a significant amount of rafting involved in this print, as shown in the illustration below.   The dimensions of the print reflected is size.

The speaker box measured 210mm across and was 120mm long.  The print was 140mm high.   The holes for the speakers and the blue tooth control buttons were 70mm by 30mm and 50mm across.

This was a significant print - however it had a purpose as these dimensions reflect the size of the laser cut speakers.   The bird that was designed to mount the top of the speakers required careful removing the rafting.   Its legs are somewhat of a concern still being relatively thin, and the hat that is sitting on the birds head in the second picture did not survive the removal of the basic rafting.   A final issue to be discussed will be the mounting of the electronics for the speaker in the unit and mounting them into place.

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.

3D Printing and Technology General Projects

We have continued to publish a wealth of material related to our 2025 School Market Day - you can follow the posts via the Market Day tab, using the 'tags' from the search bar on this blog to track individual student projects.

We used a variety of technology to focus on the three elements that we were looking for with our students projects: innovation, creativity and personalisation.

Our students have completed their DPE projects in the latest cycle.  During this time students at Y7/8 completed a variety of tech related projects.  We have written about some of these projects in the past and included in these groups is the blue tooth speaker group.

One of the students recently used Tinkercad to create a box for the bluetooth speaker system - this print was then completed using the Bambu H2D Printer.   We have completed laser cut versions of this project previously a number of which are featured on this blog, you can view them here.

The print measured 150mm across and was 100mm wide and high.  Including the lettering the print took fourteen hours to complete on the Bambu.  There was minimal finishing and rafting with this project.