Mr. Erdreich - 2020 Cardboard Challenge

Attention all Madison Makers! We will be competing in the 2020 Cardboard Engineering Challenge hosted by the New Jersey GT program across numerous districts in the state!

This opportunity will challenge you to apply your maker skills by crafting something out of the amazing and commonly discarded material....CARDBOARD!

Through this this contest, you can represent the Madison Maker community by designing, creating, and submitting your cardboard creation to official NJGT judges who will be awarding trophies and prizes to contestants.

All projects are due no later that 11:59 pm on October 27th, 2020

As described in the project video at the top of this page, your challenge is to create a Halloween Costume that uses cardboard as its primary material! This costume must be a creation of your own design and meet all contest requirements in order to be entered.

Your costume must:

Include at least 1 moving part, simple machine, or other mechanical feature
Be able to be worn on the body
Be at least 90% cardboard

Your project should:

Have a clear theme or character
Look really cool!
Have great craftsmanship
Include a clever use of materials
Be an original design (don't download plans, patterns, templates, or kits to use in your project)

Your costume must be 90% cardboard, so what else can you use?

Paints, stickers, paper, glitter, or tin foil
Glue, tape, zip ties, string, clips
Wood dowels, soda cans, water bottles, or other recycled materials
And whatever else you can think of that!

Remember, the judges are looking for a cardboard project, not a project that's covered in cardboard!

To submit, all students must complete this submission form to accompany a sponsorship form completed by your teacher (Mr. E). Students must also create a video that meets these requirements:

1 Minute or Less
Should show a student or a family member/dog/alien wearing the costume project
Videos should include the following talking points:
- Hi I'm ____ and I'm in ____ grade from ______ school district
- My project is _______
- I made it by ________
- This is the moving part and here's how I made it
- This is a special story or interesting thing I learned

NJGT Judges will be selecting entries for countless awards including:

Best Mechanical Engineering
Best Craftsmanship
Best Character Design
Best use of Movement
Grand Champion (Best overall concept & design)
PLUS judges prizes and honorable mentions!

Students will also have the opportunity to win prize money in the form of Amazon Gift Cards!

Mr. Erdreich is here to help you complete this project with recommendations or suggestions for your design, but this is your creation!

Reach out to parents, older siblings, or other family members to help in the construction of your projects at home

Looking for inspiration or ideas? Check out Mr. E's favorite place of inspiration www.instructables.com who is also running a halloween contest right now. You could enter this project in both!