We had the pleasure of exhibiting at You can MAKE it in Northeast Wisconsin, a career expo focused on the manufacturing industry. The event was sponsored by NEW Manufacturing Alliance and hosted in Greenville, Wisconsin.
Several local manufacturers gathered to share career opportunities and engage with 7th grade students from both Greenville and Hortonville, Wisconsin. Students chose who they wanted to meet with prior to the event and visited the manufacturers in assigned groups. It was great to teach the kids more about Pacon, and learn the career paths they were starting to think about.
To keep them engaged, we proposed a friendly competition amongst the groups. We challenged the kids to create a structure that would hold the most Riverside 3D™ Construction Paper packages.
The structures had to be a minimum of 15", and the students were given only 10 sheets of 9" x 12" Riverside 3D Construction Paper, 15" of tape, and 20 minutes.
These creative kids really wowed us with their creative engineering skills and came up with unique designs.
Group 1 set the bar high with a whopping 67 packages! Their structure used all 10 sheets of paper in one cylindrical shape. To meet the 15" height requirement, they crafted a flag for the top.
We didn't think anyone would beat Group 1's record... Then group 4 came along and wowed us. Their structure was still standing after 94 packages were set on top. WE RAN OUT OF PACKAGES! We couldn't believe it.
Pictured from left to right: Alec V. Dylan S., Braeden S., and Cage K.
Their structure only used eight sheets of paper! Each of the four cylindrical shapes was made of two sheets. If you watch the crush test in the video below, you'll see that the students made a telescoping design in order to meet the 15" height requirement with the 9" x 12" sheets they were given.
"It was great to see the creativity and excitement from all the groups," Greg M., Pacon Marketing Communications Manager, said. "The winning structure held close to 100 pounds before we ran out of packages to add."
The Results Are In
We knew Riverside 3D Construction Paper would be the best paper for this challenge, but what makes it better than the competition?
Visit riverside3d.com to learn more about the unique qualities this paper has, and browse our projects and lesson plans.