How do you turn a literacy lesson about insects into a hands-on digital design challenge? Myles Webb shares how Year 4 students at Auroa Primary School combined creativity, 3D modelling and augmented reality to bring their learning to life.

At Auroa Primary School technology is an important part of how we teach and learn. With 170 students, our Apple Distinguished School embraces its motto, ‘Educate to Empower’, by encouraging students to explore, create and develop their digital skills.

One area we’ve particularly enjoyed developing is 3D printing. Rather than treating it as a standalone activity, we look for opportunities to integrate it into other curriculum areas, giving students meaningful reasons to design and create.

A recent project with our 25 Year 4 students provided an excellent example, combining structured literacy, digital design and 3D printing around a common theme: insects.

From literacy to design

Our structured literacy work had introduced students to insects and their defining characteristics. They understood the importance of features such as six legs, three body sections and antennae, and could apply this knowledge to their designs.

The challenge was to create their own realistic insect using Tinkercad (tinkercad.com), a web-based 3D design tool. As a 1:1 iPad school, our students have ready access to the technology, and we’d been using Tinkercad throughout the year to develop their design skills.

We also used ChatGPT to help prepare a design sheet, incorporating criteria, examples and practical tips to guide students through the challenge.

Our learning objectives focused on using digital technology to plan, design, create and improve products for a specific purpose, while encouraging imagination and original thinking.

Bringing designs into the real world

Students began by creating virtual insects, using Tinkercad’s shapes and design tools to build their models. They could combine geometric shapes, experiment with features and use the Scribble tool to produce more individual elements.

An important part of the process was reviewing designs against our checklist. Did the insect have the correct body sections? Were the legs positioned appropriately? Did it look realistic?

One particularly engaging feature was the ability to use augmented reality to project their digital insects into the classroom and around the school.

Suddenly, a small insect could appear enormous, towering over school buildings or sitting within the classroom. Beyond the novelty, this provided a valuable opportunity for students to examine their creations from different perspectives, identify problems and make improvements.

While there are ready-made models, our emphasis was on students producing their own original designs to reflect their own creativity and understanding.

From screen to 3D printer

We dedicated four sessions of approximately 20-30 minutes to the design process. Our next challenge was turning digital models into physical objects.

We’re fortunate to have three main 3D printers at school, although producing a model for every student presents practical challenges involving printing time, materials and cost.

The initial prototypes also highlighted an important lesson: something that looks excellent on screen doesn’t necessarily work as a physical object.

For example, some early ant designs featured realistic but extremely thin legs. Although our Bambu printers can reproduce fine details, the resulting models needed adjustments to ensure they were stable and strong enough to handle.

This became another valuable learning opportunity, demonstrating why testing, evaluating and refining designs are essential parts of the process.

Most insects were approximately 60mm long and took around 30 minutes to print. Our aim was to create models suitable for displaying alongside students’ artwork at our annual Lamb and Calf Day.

Ultimately, we successfully printed around half for display. Importantly, every student completed a digital model and used augmented reality to present it, providing opportunities for assessment regardless of whether a physical version was printed.

Building on experience

Projects like this help students understand that digital technology is about much more than using devices. It’s about creativity, problem-solving, experimentation, and learning from mistakes.

Over the past 11 years, I’ve documented our school’s 3D printing activities, creating a collection of projects, examples and student work that other teachers can explore.

The blog has since expanded to include laser cutting, sticker-making and technology-focused school events, including Market Day and Step Master Machine competitions. Our projects can be explored at 3dprintschool.blogspot.com

It’s a growing record of what’s possible when students have the tools, encouragement and freedom to turn their ideas into reality.

Myles Webb is Deputy Principal and classroom teacher at Auroa Primary School in South Taranaki.

INTERFACE November 2026