Cardboard STEAM Project Popular During Online Learning

Trish Hurley

The winter announcement by the Ontario government that schools were going online was met with some angst.

I usually have school maker projects connected to the Global Goals or Forest of Reading. As this year is different, my maker projects are on hiatus.

It was decided students would do online projects, similar to what I might ask of them at school. They did them at home with the materials they had. We specifically asked students not to ask family members to buy materials at a craft store.

We did two projects, which went through the engineering and design process. The students had to imagine, ask, plan, build, improve and present. Each project began with a discussion, some videos for inspiration and a slide show, including learning goals, timelines and success criteria.

We decided on this approach for numerous reasons.

First, we felt the students needed a break from being online. Students had to check in, and we were always online to answer questions but we allowed them to walk away from their screens and use their creative skills to build. The second reason we did these projects was because we couldn’t do them in school this year. It was nice to allow the students to build, create, and present their projects, while never taking them to school.

A popular project, the Cardboard Build can mean a variety of things. In this case, students were encouraged to build anything they wanted out of cardboard from their recycle bin. I wanted to keep the project open-ended. The slide-deck I created included numerous ideas or categories (a game, a useful thing, a toy). We discussed types of cardboard, ways to fasten cardboard (cardboard attachment techniques are

Grade 4 student, Rowan Steele, created a Minecraft character, “Steve” and outfitted him with slide-on armour (picture two).

(Permission granted to use these pictures from his mom, Zoe Steele)

worth looking up and discussing before a build) and we watched a super cardboard maker discuss the creativity behind building and show some unique and incredible cardboard projects (from a double decker bus to a way to connect race-car tracks). For this project, I asked these junior students to use rulers to measure and consider using multiple ways to attach cardboard. With that in mind, the sky was the limit.

Students came up with an idea, drew their plan, gathered materials, asked, when necessary, when necessary asked for parental help (using box cutters, glue guns) and created their masterpieces. Although some students painted their projects, they were not required to. The thinking, designing, perseverance and mathematics that went into these projects were incredible. Upon completion, each child then did an online “show and tell” and presented their project orally to the class. The end results ranged from a Minecraft character to a usable chair and night table to a giant helicopter. z