Global Cardboard Challenge
The Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office is offering an opportunity for local students to participate in the Global Cardboard Challenge. The challenge encourages students to create “something” using cardboard and other recycled and recyclable materials. Creations might be games, concept vehicles, robots, or some other interactive gadget, tool, or toy. The ultimate goal is to give students an opportunity to express their creativity while learning about the engineering design and build process, teamwork, and collaborative problem-solving. As of this writing, well over 250 students have already indicated that they’ll be involved.
Elementary schools will participate throughout September up until October 4. Teachers will be providing the guidance and encouragement to their students, and many schools will have showcase events for their students’ projects. Volunteers, including students from Columbia College, will review the projects and select two or three from each participating school to present their creations at the newly unveiled Innovation Lab in Sonora on Saturday, October 11.
High school students will work in teams and will be presented with an engineering challenge on October 11 at the Innovation Lab and will be given a limited amount of time and materials to complete the challenge. Engineering students from UC Merced will be on hand to help judge the high school projects and to share their stories about the engineering projects that they are working on as part of their research and education.
The students participating on October 11 will also have an opportunity to tour the Innovation Lab so they can see the facilities that are available to further their exploration in science and engineering.
The challenge was inspired by a young man in Southern California that put his imagination to good use. There is a wonderful video on YouTube entitled “Caine’s Arcade” that tells the story of this young man and his imaginative creations that were the catalyst for what has now become the Global Cardboard Challenge.
