Cardboard challenges have been a core part of my makerspace programming for the past eight years. I continue to be amazed year after year at the amazing ideas students come up with when given a design challenge and simple, everyday materials. In Part 1 of this post series, I looked at some of my favorite … Read more
The Cardboard Challenge remains one of my all-time favorite makerspace activities. I love how accessible it is to students. How enthusiastic and creative they can be with such simple materials. I’ll never forget one of my favorite makerspace moments – my students at Stewart were Skyping with another school that was looking to start a … Read more
Connecting Students to the World Through the Cardboard Challenge Makerspaces and maker projects can be amazing catalysts for connecting your students with others. The Imagination Foundation’s Global Cardboard Challenge is one of my favorite maker activities to help my students feel connected to the world and see the power of making. Combine that with a Skype … Read more
Our 2016 Cardboard Challenge We’ve been doing the Cardboard Challenge at Stewart every year since we first started our makerspace in 2014. See our 2014 challenge here and our 2015 challenge here. Our challenge is inspired by the YouTube video, Caine’s Arcade and the Global Cardboard Challenge. Every year we start the challenge by watching … Read more
The Awesome Cardboard Maker Cave Last spring, I gave my after-school Makers Club a challenge – create a unique, interactive project that guests can interact with at our 2016 Maker Fair. We had held the Cardboard Challenge earlier in the school year, giving my students lots of ideas on how to use cardboard as a medium. … Read more
Yes, I realize that the official Global Cardboard Challenge happened back in October, but cardboard is timeless 🙂 I did actually hold the Cardboard Challenge in our makerspace with my students in October, but between FAME and AASL, I hadn’t gotten around to blogging about it. So here you go. About the Cardboard Challenge If … Read more
For the month of October, our after-school STEAM Maker Club has been focusing on the Cardboard Challenge. We started off by watching the short film on Caine’s Arcade together. If you haven’t seen it, watch it right now: My students were inspired by all the amazing games made by Caine, and immediately started working on … Read more
3-16-23 Many school libraries still look like they did fifty years ago. But our libraries are no longer quiet dusty book repositories. Librarians are leading the way in technology use and modern pedagogy in our schools – now we need to update our spaces to match. In this workshop, you will get ideas and … Read more
In the spring of 2021, the 6th grade science teacher and I began forming a plan. She had seen the engagement of 6th graders in our afterschool Maker Days program and wanted to find a way to bring that into her classroom so that ALL of our 6th graders could have this opportunity. We … Read more
Bringing Hands-On Learning to Middle School Science with Makerspace Collaborations (Page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog.) This session will look at a variety of ways that you can collaborate with your science classes and incorporate makerspaces and maker activities into the … Read more