Introduction.

I represent a children's engineering club. We started with robotics, but from time to time other areas were captured: programming, electronics, etc. A year ago, we won a grant from one glorious company - a software development company from Yekaterinburg, for whose funds we participated in the Techno-marathon for the assembly of 3D printers: an article about TechnoMarathon.
And since March last year, we started using a 3D printer. We began to use it very actively, literally immediately began to make a manipulator for the nearest robotics Olympiad (where we took 2nd place in Russia by the way).

The more I was engaged in this area, the more it lured me with its capabilities, especially for the technical creativity of children. And we with them not only love to cook in our pot, but also to participate in various festivals, contests and competitions.
And of course the question arose: is there anything from competitions on the topic of 3D printing, in which you can participate with us in Yekaterinburg?
But the only thing that was found was JuniorSkills passing in autumn, in which there is a direction prototyping. But alas, and ah - the direction turned out to be some kind of strange small party game, in which children should declare as if from enterprises, the number of teams is limited, and as I understand it, everyone who wins wins. In general, we do not get into this entertainment. And nothing really found anything interesting.
From this all follows the conclusion - if you want something interesting, do it yourself!
')

So, it was decided - it is necessary to organize the theme of the competitive movement for children in order to show their own and attract others. We began to discuss this idea with the organizers of the glorious festival "City of Techno-Creativity", within the framework of which a techno-marathon took place a year ago.
The idea immediately received a response - our goals for the development of the children's movement in engineering and in 3D printing converge, and the distribution of 3D printing in Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region is strongly supported by the festival and beyond. And we started a long discussion of the competition, since the direction is quite new, and I wanted to do everything in the best possible way.

Job Development

The first thing to discuss was the scale of participation. The festival itself is already attracting more and more children from all over the region - on the one hand. On the other hand, the topic of 3D printing is still rather weakly represented in children's institutions, although it is starting to develop. Therefore, they began to wonder how to attract as many interested people from the whole region as possible. As a result, it was decided to split the competition into two categories: beginners and pros, and in each category to make two age groups (up to 12 years - the youngest, and 13-17 older).
I looked in our glorious runet for various examples of tasks from competitions on 3D printing, including read and task from the above-mentioned JuniorSkills. Unfortunately, most of them came down to the creation of some lego-compatible details. It seems to me rather banal, and does not reflect the useful things that can be done using 3D printing.
After thinking about, analyzing different directions of printing, and our own experience, our tasks for children appeared.
Further, about each category and tasks for them.

Newbies

The goal of this direction is to give some simple task for beginners, to ensure mass character, to attract those who have just started to engage.
For greater accessibility, participants from other cities decided to make this contest in absentia.

Task: The newcomers category involves the implementation of a project on the theme “The architecture of the native city”. Participants are invited to select one of the buildings of the city in which they live, and create a 3D model of this building. Model sizes are not limited, the model can be composed of separately printed elements. After that, it is proposed to make a video (with a duration of no more than 5 minutes in the younger age group and no more than 8 minutes in the older age group) with the footage of the original building, and its 3D model. The video should be announced, participants are invited to talk about the building, the history of its appearance, the main architectural elements, the process of creating a building model.

We decided to make the evaluation criteria as follows:

• The quality of ownership of the material - 20 points
• Workmanship - 25 points
• The complexity of the work - 25 points
• The quality of oral protection - 20 points
• The special opinion of the jury - 10 points

The pros

The purpose of this direction is to give an opportunity to show themselves to those who have certain achievements in this area. Show your work, but not only them - and also your skills and abilities.
Of course, the ideal would be to give the children a task that they will perform right on the contest itself. But the number of 3D printers was limited, so it was necessary to organize a certain screenings - this is on the one hand. On the other hand - to provide some mass.
Therefore, for the pros, it was decided to make an internal competition, but to divide it in two stages. The main stage is a conference where children defend their projects. Final - independent performance of tasks.

Assignment: The category of pros offers the main stage in the form of project protection in the format of a scientific-practical conference, and the final. To participate in the conference, the team must prepare a project using 3D printing technology. The scope of projects is not limited. In addition to printed parts, the model may contain parts made by any method, including electric motors and electronic components, but only parts made by 3D printing will be evaluated. The defense is given 3-5 minutes in the younger age group, and 5-7 minutes in the older age group. According to the results of project protection in each age group, three finalists are determined.
In the final, participants are given a task, which is carried out in a 3D-design environment, and involves printing the results on a 3D printer. The task will be brought to the participants directly at the very end of the competition. 3D printers for the job provide the organizers of the competition. 3D printer model at the Prusa i3 Hephestos finale. Software for printing Cura.
The computers provided for the final will install the SketchUp software. If participants need other software, they can bring their laptop with the necessary software to the final.

We decided to do the following project evaluation criteria:

• Relevance and novelty - 10 points
• Workmanship - 20 points
• The complexity of the work - 20 points
• Availability and quality of technical documentation - 15 points
• The quality of oral protection - 15 points
• Own assessment of the prospects of the proposed development - 10 points
• The special opinion of the jury - 10 points

About the task of the full-time stage will be written further.

Holding a competition

The date of the competition has shifted - the flu quarantine in Yekaterinburg and the region has influenced the preparation of participants and the holding of mass events. The full-time stage took place on February 14, by this time we managed to check the work and award the winners of the correspondence stage - the Novices category.

Correspondence - Beginners

What is interesting among the younger participants was much better than the older ones. Apparently children at a younger age more quickly master new technologies. And their motivation is much better. My student sat on the project for several hours a day, drew. While the Compass 3D, in which we did the work, we began to master along with the implementation of this work from mid-January.
In general, we can say that a start has been made. For example, I post two works that scored the maximum number of points.

This is our job (1st place):


And almost with a minimum gap other work (2nd place):

Full-time - Profi

There were fewer participants in this category. Apparently, the direction is still evolving.
But nevertheless everything took place, and went well.
In the defense of works at the conference, more than half were also associated with architecture, that is, various buildings. Some of them are models of educational institutions in which participants are engaged, others are simply well-known buildings.
As an example - one of these works, the building of the gymnasium from Yekaterinburg. Sorted by floor:

Since there were not many participants, we called everyone to the final, we decided not to do screenings.

The task for the final - I had to think about it. I didn’t want to make a “Lego-compatible part”. I wanted something good, practical. By the type of what is usually done when prototyping in children's technical creativity.
As a result, separate tasks were developed for junior and senior students.

The task for the younger

The theme of the task for the younger ones is the Russian toy “Blacksmiths”. This is a toy where two slats moved, and the blacksmiths knocked with hammers. The participants were given screws and nuts, everything else was supposed to print. And originality was welcomed.

Unfortunately there are no photos left from the contest. Only the work of my student, made on a weak phone camera:

I think the idea of ​​the toy is clear - we move the slats, the Christmas trees are swinging.

Task for seniors

In the older group, the task was more complicated - a servo was issued. It was necessary to make a support, and to the servomotor a device for registering oscillations in the proposed prinip.
An example is the work of the winners. In the photo, trying to draw a circle using the device oscillations:

Observations and interesting

It was curious to observe who uses what software. One team (younger) used Sketchup. Another 3D Max (older). All the others did the task in Compass 3D.

From the funny: adults repeatedly corrected children when they said “hole” - they say real engineers say only “hole”.
And at the end of the competition one of the adults made a reservation about the hole. And such a chorus of indignant voices of children: "Otters !!!" It was fun to hear. But nice!

In general, everything went very well for the first time. We hope that this direction will develop, and every year there will be more and more participants.

Thanks

1. The organizers of the festival "City of Techno-Creativity" for the support and organization of the competition
2. Hackspace "MakeITLab" of Yekaterinburg for competent refereeing at the competition, and development of the task for the final of the competition
3. Polytechnic College of Yekaterinburg for the premises and equipment provided