STEAM Lab – Engaging Engineers
Middle School STEAM students are exercising their engineering skills by creating useful items with cardboard. They began the lesson by watching the story of Caine’s Arcade, where a 9 year old boy builds an entire arcade out of cardboard. They also watched a short video in which cardboard was used in India to make backpacks for students that folded out into desks that were used at schools that didn’t have desks. They discussed some of the problems facing our world today and brainstormed ideas on how to help ease some of these problems by using discarded cardboard to make items that people need. The students are making items including a house, a tent, a shelf, a chair, shoes, a lunchbox, a candy dispenser and even a grass board (a snowboard that you use on grass), as they discover the Engineering Design Process/Cycle by using it in their design and building process. They are also demonstrating their creativity and ingenuity as well as their desire to be good stewards of the earth through this cardboard construction project.