Creating with cardboard has never been cooler! Come watch as young and old battle it out with sticky-tape and scissors to become the first South African Global Cardboard Challenge winner.
Creating with cardboard has never been cooler! Come watch as young and old battle it out with sticky-tape and scissors to become the first South African Global Cardboard Challenge winner.
Armed with cardboard and other recycled materials, participants have limited time to build anything from rocket ships, to cars and robots.The trend inspired by nine-year-old Caine Monroy’s cardboard arcade has gone viral and hit Scifest with a bang.
Science is not all about chemicals, big explosions and laboratories. The movement is about promoting imagination, innovation and entrepreneurship using recyclable materials as a core skill. Who better to fuel this movement than children?
“One of 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 that it demonstrations how strong those powers are and how readily people will rise to challenge if you give it to them,” Sir Ken Robertson, a creativity and education expert, said in a YouTube video about Caine’s creation.
After spending his summer vacation constructing an arcade game using cardboard, tape, and scissors at his father’s auto part shop, Caine only had one customer, a film-maker who was so impressed he made a documentary about the elaborate arcade that comes with tickets and prizes.
The short film was posted on YouTube to raise money for Caine’s university fund. The chance meeting turned a child’s imagination into a global movement with the short-film reaching two million hits in five days.
In response, other children uploaded videos about their creations.
Join the cardboard challenge and become part of the revolution to change the way we think about science.
The Cardboard Challenge will take place on the 15 March, from 10-12am at the Monument Fountain Court. All welcome (children under 10 under adult supervision). Entrance is free for spectators.
