Students at two Cork primary schools among the winners of a national 3D-printing competition

The tech-savvy pupils at CBS Primary Charleville and St Patrick's Boys' National School in Cork were challenged to design something to improve health in their communities

Shane Wolfe and Richard Rajeev, third class pupils at St Patrick's Boys' National School, one of two Cork schools which won National Design Competition using 3D printing to respond to health challenges in their community. Picture: Jim Coughlan

Students at two Cork primary schools have been named as winners of a national 3D-printing competition that challenged them to design projects to improve health in their communities.

CBS Primary Charleville and St Patrick’s Boys’ National School in Cork have been named as winners of ‘Manufacturing a Healthy Future’, a 3D-printing design challenge from I-Form, which is the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, and medical technology company Stryker.

The senior autism class in CBS Primary Charleville designed sensory fidget toys aimed at improving wellbeing for themselves and their classmates. At St Patrick’s Boys’, third class designed a ‘learning desk’ aimed at helping children with autism to communicate their needs and emotions in a non-verbal way.

Sandra Minogue, teacher at CBS Primary in Charleville, said the project married a lot of her "tech-savvy" students' different interests. 

"Anything to do with technology, printing, coding, design, it’s their thing," she said.

“A lot of what they like are things like sensory toys and fidget spinners; things that just kind of keep them calm, and allow them to concentrate while having something to play with at the same time. We also have a junior ASD class as well, so we were thinking ‘what would they like if they were going to have a toy?’” 

Three of the Senior autism spectrum disorder (ASD) class in CBS Primary Charleville Lorcan Williams, Tristtan Tan and Ryan Soaresde Castro who designed sensory fidget toys using their 3D printer. Picture: Liam Burke/Press 22

The boys' winning design involves a pipe-like base that different changeable toys can be fitted onto. This allows it to be tailor-made to suit every student.

“So it means that any child can pick what kind of things they’d like to put on it. They might like if something had bumps, or if something is see-through or something you can spin, or that catches the light. Our idea was that it would suit a lot of different students.” 

Using a computer programme called Tinkercad, students planned out their designs using measurements and calculations to make sure the finished product fits with the 3D-printer. 

“It was quite technical really, for me anyway,” she laughed. 

The class now plans to create their own individual products. 

Inspired by friends and siblings, the students at St Patrick’s idea for their winning design came from brainstorming as a class, according to teacher Anita Kelleher.

“We will have our first autism class opening in September, so it became about something we could do to make sure the new children starting feel included straightaway.”

Ms Kelleher had no experience with 3D-printing prior to attending a course over the summer with I-Form, which is hosted by University College Dublin.  

“What was fascinating to me was that after a few weeks, the boys were just flying it. They established a lovely little community of learning, where they could share ideas. They were miles ahead of us after a few weeks.” 

She would like to in time get the students to work with other classes and share their expertise. 

“We’re still very much at the early stages of the learning process. We’d like to broaden it out, give everyone the opportunity to see it. Some boys will really take to it.”