Making: Cardboard Challenge

Materials: Cardboard boxes, cutting tools, duct tape, masking tape, permanent markers, imagination, ingenuity, and perseverance

Optional: hot glue gun, butcher paper, paper fasteners, rubber bands, paper clips

A while back, I had learned about the Global Cardboard Challenge but didn’t have a way to make it happen. This year, with my technology classes and our dabbling in making, I was able to have my students take on the challenge. The global challenge is normally held in September/October; however, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity since who knows what next year will bring.

How did I get enough boxes? A few weeks before starting the project, I asked my school’s maintenance worker to drop off any cardboard that would otherwise be going out for recycling. Luckily, I have a tech storage room where it could start piling up before being to carted over to the classroom. Once the challenge started, all cardboard for recycling was to be dropped off directly in the classroom. In the event that we didn’t have enough boxes, boxes could have been procured from my local grocery store. It was suggested to students that if they needed a “special” box for the project, they could bring one from home.

What was used to cut the cardboard? Safety and cost were concerns of mine here. Therefore, I purchased only one powered cutter, a rechargeable ZipSnip. Currently, the students cannot run the tool but need to need to ask the teacher to make the desired cuts. This tool has come in handy when students need a precise cut or are creating many pieces of the same size. We have found that scissors meant for cutting bandages work well when making shallow cuts into the cardboard, and acquired a few pairs of them. Then, to make sure enough tools are floating around the room, I mass-produced duct tape handles on individual hacksaw blades. I had seen this option at the Tinker@ICE area at this year’s ICE conference and really liked it. For less than a dollar per tool and the risk of cutting one’s self pretty low, all students were able to work on the challenge at once.

What did students make? My students, either individually or in a group, were able to design and build practically anything they wanted. Without coaching or direction, I had students make such items as a guitar, wearable turtle shell, kid playhouse, dollhouse, spaceship, car, pinball machine, and a rolling toy of sorts. For students needing a little more direction like those in one of my grade levels, a theme of creating carnival games could be put in place. This theme is based off of the Cain’s Arcade video which originally inspired the Global Cardboard Challenge. As the end of the project nears, be sure to start talking with the students about their plans for the project afterwards. Will the student be taking it home? If it is too big, could it be donated to a lower grade for use during free choice time or indoor recess?

Where did you store all the students’ work in progress? Storage did become an issue. At times it was hard to tell which pile of boxes belonged to whom. All of the projects were stored along the perimeter of the classroom, making the middle of the classroom and our workspace smaller every class period. As luck would have it, one of my grade levels couldn’t take on the project at the same time as the others allowing “extra” room for projects to be stored.

What would you do differently the next time around? Potentially, I would buy actual handles for the hacksaw blades instead of mass-producing duct tape handles. Overall, the challenge was a success and well received by the students.