CARDBOARD CHALLENGE

Can you make an arcade game or something else interesting out of cardboard?

This is a very open ended design challenge from the Imagination Foundation, with a fascinating story.

It sounds like a fairy tale.   Once upon a time, a 9 year old boy named Caine created an elaborate set of arcade games using mostly cardboard, tape, time and lots of imagination.  The arcade, located in the front of his dad’s auto parts store in Los Angeles, grew more and more elaborate, but never attracted any customers.  Until one day, a young filmmaker named Nirvan Mullock came to the store, looking for a door handle for his car, and became the first customer of the marvelous arcade.

Nirvan was entranced with the arcade and its earnest young proprietor.   With help from Caine’s dad, George, Nirvan hatched a plan to get a bunch of people to come and play the arcade, and made a short, incredibly sweet movie about the results:

Some amazing things have happened in the intervening year.

• The movie went viral on the Internet with more than 2 million viewers in the first week (and another 5 million since) and raised over $200,000 for a college fund for Caine.
• Kids around the world (encouraged by wonderful parents and educators) started building cool stuff out of cardboard and sending ideas and pictures to the Caine’s Arcade web site.
• A creative funder (the Goldhirsh Foundation) awarded Nirvan a substantial challenge grant to start an organization devoted to creativity and imagination.
• In the first 2 months, a school pilot project reached over 100 schools in 9 countries.
• A rousing collection of education visionaries endorsed the project.  As luminary Sir Ken Robinson said, “One of the greatest challenges we face in education is tapping into children’s natural powers of creativity and one of the appeals of Caine’s Arcade is it’s demonstrating how deep those powers are, and how readily people will rise to the challenge if you give it to them.  And I think if we can make that systemic in our education systems, we’ll transform the world for our children and for ourselves.”
• With a new movie Nirvan and his new Imagination Foundation launched the Cardboard Challenge and Global Day of Play.
• And today, October 6, 2012, the first Cardboard Challenge was celebrated at more than 200 events in 38 countries.   Follow the Imagination Foundation to find out more about this phenomenal movement/celebration of children’s imagination.

Kudos to Caine and all the imaginative kids in the world.  And bravo to Nirvan Mullick and his new foundation. The idea, as Nirvan says, is not only to give kids the tools to build the things they can imagine, but also to imagine the world that they can build.

Now go build something interesting out of cardboard.

EGG DROP CHALLENGE

Can you build a container that will enable an ordinary raw chicken egg to survive a lengthy fall?

This was one of the earliest engineering design challenges, and is still a great one:  many museums, camps, colleges and classrooms have yearly egg drop contests.  By varying the rules – limiting the materials, the size of package and the height from which the package is dropped – the challenge can be made accessible to kindergarteners, or engaging for university students and other adults.  Scicenter in Ithaca New York has been hosting an annual egg drop contest for more than 25 years, with categories ranging from Best Freefall to Most Ecological Design to “Splat.”

Some contests have design goals other than mere survival.  How light can the package be?  How small?  How creative?  Participants can be given a limited “budget” with different materials costing different amounts.  Some contests require the package fall within a target area, to discourage gliders.

Creative selection and limitation of materials radically changes the contest.   Even a young and sloppy builder can easily make a successful descent using enough bubble wrap.  Advanced students and engineers will be challenges by a contest that uses only a small amount of paper, or cardboard or straws, string and tape.  Rubber bands and toothpicks are also challenging materials.  For safety, it’s good to forbid anything breakable or flammable.

It helps to be specific, very specific.   For instance,  ScienceMom suggests using a dozen drinking straws, a dozen craft sticks, 4 pieces of loose-leaf paper, 1 yard of string, and one yard of masking tape gathered into a “kit” for each participant.

The eggs are usually added just before the contest;  this ensures uniformity, and prevents cagey contestants from hardening the shells with tape or glue.   Thoughtful contest organizers avoid mess by requiring the egg – or the whole package – to be contained in a closed baggy, and by putting drop clothes on and around the landing area.

A fine challenge in packaging engineering, the Egg Drop Challenge can also be used to highlight Newton’s Laws,  animal physiology or the difficulty of landing a delicate payload

A few more hints:

• Kids of all ages love prizes, even if it’s just a certificate documenting brilliance.

• Raw eggs bring a small risk of salmonella poisoning, so make sure the eggs are properly disposed of, and that everyone washes their hands with soap after the contest.  Some contests use light bulbs to avoid this problem.

• An egg drop contest is innately exciting, but gains additional pizzazz with patter from a charismatic announcer or master of ceremonies.

A Google search will produce lots of contests, and sample rules.   Here are a few for starters:
http://montshire.org/programs/special-events/egg-drop/
http://www.theworks.org/files/docs/Egg%20Drop%20Challenge%202011.pdf
http://www.tnengineering.net/eweek/Demonstrations/Egg%20Drop%20Demonstration.pdf

Eggs away!

7 BILLION: THE ULTIMATE DESIGN CHALLENGE

7 billion:  The Ultimate Design Challenge

There are seven billion human beings on our planet.   How can we make sure that each one has clean air and water, nourishing food, adequate clothing and shelter, freedom from violence, and opportunities for education and imagination?  These are the ultimate design challenges.

Finding and implementing solutions to these challenges will require the creativity, resolve and courage of men and women, girls and boys from every culture and walk of life.    Develop your creative problem-solving skills by first tackling some of the other design challenges on this site, then go for the ultimate!


Illustration courtesy of National Engineers Week